What Stopped the Blogging?

I have been a little distracted and not in the blogging world as much as I would like. Maybe no one noticed, well some people noticed because I have lost followers (not many but I have to wonder if this isn't why).

Anyway, there are many reasons for my absence or at the very least less time at the computer.

There is the reason that it is summer and the weather has been awesome so I have been outside with the kids but that really isn't the reason because my lap top is capable of going outside with me.

There is the famous 'I am busy reason', which I am busy but that has never kept me from the blogging world before.

There is the 'we just moved the 'babies' into toddler beds and they are up at all hours of the night so I am tired and I can't form a complete thought' excuse. While this is true and I am tired, my tiredness hasn't really kept me from blogging in the past.

No, there is one thing that can keep me from the blogging world and that thing is this

Yes, I have found a book, an awesome book that I just can't put down. A book that I have fallen head over heals in love with.

Now reading books and I have this weird relationship. You see, I have not read a book since I read Breaking Dawn and that was about six months ago.

I really do enjoy reading books but I am very picky about what I read and I get burned out very quickly. And since I read all four Twilight books in rapid succession and in a short amount of time, I got burned out.

I wish that I could read books like her (the list of books that she has read is so impressive) but I can't. I have to read every printed word or I will totally miss the story. This makes me a very slow reader, sometimes painfully slow.

When I start to read a book, it has to grab me in the first few pages or I am done. I have tried to get over this but when I am not wrapped up in the story by the the second or third chapter, I just can't read it anymore.

Reading the book then becomes work and that is not why I want to read. I can't tell you how many books sit on my bookshelves that I have only read part of with no plans to go back and read them again.

Knowing this about myself, I should really go to the library for my books but I just can't stand library books. Now don't get me wrong, I love the library and when Jake, Quinn and Claire grow out of their 'book destruction' phase I will take them there. But I will not get any books for me.

For me, it has to be new books. There is just something about holding a virgin book in your hands and opening it for the first time; that smell, the crisp pages, the shininess of the cover, that I can't do without.

This new book thing is so important to me that when I purchase a book, it is always from the bottom of the pile or the very last one on the shelf. Crazy, I know.

Ok, so know you know the quirkiness about me and reading books, back to the book at hand.

'A Thousand Splendid Suns' is an amazing book. I don't really know why I bought the book expect for the fact that when I was standing in Costco looking at all the books, my eye kept going back to it. I picked it up and put it back three times until a woman that I never met came up to me and couldn't stop gushing about how awesome this the book was.

If this book could cause a total stranger to talk to me and me to talk back to her then I had to give it a try.

I bought the book home and I still wasn't sure that I was actually going to like it. But then I opened it and started reading and I was hooked. The story just pulled me in. It has every a good story should, mystery, romance, murder, history, suspense, complicated relationship, relatable and the list goes on and on.

And it takes every effort of self control not to read it every waking second. You should know its good because it has pulled me away from my beloved blogging and that right there speaks volumes as to how awesome this book is.

So now let me tell you a little bit about this book and then I will stop gushing and let you move onto reading other blogs.

This book takes place in Afghanistan. Its is about a story of two women and what its like to be a woman in Afghanistan. This book takes you through a little bit of the country's history and all the hardships that the people faced.

But most of all this book is about the Afghani women and what its like to be a woman in this culture; the struggles and hardships, the perseverance and their sisterhood. There strength is amazing an awe inspiring.

This book opened my eyes to a new culture and best of all made me think about things in my own life and even challenge some of my beliefs (I love it when a book does that).

So if you are looking for a good book to read during these last few weeks of summer, pick this one. But not for the story, and not for the excuse not to do anything else but because it is an amazing story that will make you think.

This was inspired by the prompts at Writer's Workshop.

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