reading

I was talking someone recently about reading. He was saying how he never used to read much before, but then in college he had to read a lot, and so now he feels comfortable reading, and even does so in his spare time.

This was a totally foreign concept to me. I've been reading for almost my entire life, so I don't remember ever not being comfortable reading (unless it's in Chinese). My parents taught me and each of my siblings to read when we were about five, but for some reason, while my brother never read for fun, my sister and I were soon devouring every printed material in sight. As a kid, I would read under the covers by flashlight after I was supposed to be asleep, and I would walk up and down stairs while holding a book. At the breakfast table, I would read the nutrition information on the cereal box because I didn't have a book with me.

These days, I'll read Popular Mechanic because I'm stuck in a car rental waiting room, or Sassy because I'm at the hair salon, because it's better to be reading something than nothing. When I get off of airplanes, I snag the discarded magazines that other passengers have left behind. Strange, I know.