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

1. It allowed me to test into a bilingual magnet school in Kindergarten.
2. It caused me to speak correct English, though I grew up in the ghetto.
3. It gave me an excellent vocabulary and a voracious love of words.
4. It provided an escape from my abusive, dysfunctional childhood home.
5. It exposed me to the Bible and my overwhelming need for a Savior.
6. It inspired me to teach others and to start the Sunshine Club when I was nine.
7. It kept me occupied and from running the streets and getting into trouble.
8. It got me my own Sunday school class & an adult assistant when I was thirteen.
9. It motivated me to apply for a library job when I was fifteen and too young to work.
10. It put a burning desire in my heart to become a published author of books.
11. It enabled me to pass the entrance test to attend a college preparatory school.
12. It secured my acceptance into my college of choice (and possibly my sorority too).
13. It made college easy & caused me to blow the class curve on my first college exam.
14. It earned me a position as editor of the college paper.
15. It made work study awesome because I worked in the library, of course!
16. It served me well in earning two undergraduate and one graduate degree.
17. It compelled me to become a teacher who taught every grade except K and 4th.
18. It demanded I expose students to children’s lit and integrate it across content areas.
19. It caused me to raise bookworms.
20. It landed me with my own magazine column.
21. It prevents me from EVER being bored and exercises my brain muscles every day.
22. It takes me all over the world though I’ve never left the United States.
23. It introduces me to friends and places I can visit over & over, whenever I like.
24. It broadens my horizons, perspectives, & capacity to empathize with others’.
25. 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