It’s Day 236 of the Pink Collar Savvy & Chic on Purpose Project and since I spent most of my weekend happily reading, it made me ponder the benefits of being bookish. Bookish is an adjective defined as “(of a person or way of life) devoted to reading and studying rather than worldly interests.” Considering that I’m a person for whom reading has been a way of life since I learned to do it age three, I suppose the description fits. That and the fact that I came up with such as long list but could have easily gone on… Below are my top 25:
Benefits of Being Bookish
- It allowed me to test into a bilingual magnet school in Kindergarten.
- It caused me to speak correct English, though I grew up in the ghetto.
- It gave me an excellent vocabulary and a voracious love of words.
- It provided an escape from my abusive, dysfunctional childhood home.
- It exposed me to the Bible and my overwhelming need for a Savior.
- It inspired me to teach others and to start the Sunshine Club when I was nine.
- It kept me occupied and from running the streets and getting into trouble.
- It got me my own Sunday school class & an adult assistant when I was thirteen.
- It motivated me to apply for a library job when I was fifteen and too young to work.
- It put a burning desire in my heart to become a published author of books.
- It enabled me to pass the entrance test to attend a college preparatory school.
- It secured my acceptance into my college of choice (and possibly my sorority too).
- It made college easy & caused me to blow the class curve on my first college exam.
- It earned me a position as editor of the college paper.
- It made work study awesome because I worked in the library, of course!
- It served me well in earning two undergraduate and one graduate degree.
- It compelled me to become a teacher who taught every grade except K and 4th.
- It demanded I expose students to children’s lit and integrate it across content areas.
- It caused me to raise bookworms.
- It landed me with my own magazine column.
- It prevents me from EVER being bored and exercises my brain muscles every day.
- It takes me all over the world though I’ve never left the United States.
- It introduces me to friends and places I can visit over & over, whenever I like.
- It broadens my horizons, perspectives, & capacity to empathize with others’.
- It remains my most constant, enduring, hobby/passtime/passion/ & LOVE.
As a Pink Collar Savvy & Chic on Purpose bookish reader, I’ve heard a some interesting things about reading lately – like how successful people are often readers. Having just made a lifelong dream of publishing my debut novel, Seasons of Her Soul, come true, I do believe being an avid reader had a lot to do with it. Writers read to hone their craft. In addition, for as long as I can remember, every time I finish a book, I hold it close to my heart as if doing so will cause me to aborb it as part of myself forever. Perhaps I was trying to absorb some of that special writer something…Then again, now that I think about it, I was probably just being bookish.
What about you? Are you bookish? What benefits have you reaped from being a reader? In your personal life? Professionally? How could you be Pink Collar Savvy & Chic on Purpose about reading good books?
Be savvy & chic ,
~Pink Collar Coach