Bedford, Stop Being Illiterate!

I am ashamed to say that I haven't been doing much reading lately.  Unfortunately, there's just not a lot of time for me to curl up with a book.  When I am home in the evenings and rare weekends, I'm much more likely to be curled up on the couch in front of the stupid TV or in front of my sewing machine.  I do listen to audio books when I can find good ones for free (most recently Tom and I listened to a biography of Einstein, and before that I listened to Freedom, which I have very complicated feelings about and may have to write more on later).


I'm pretty sick of this no book routine, though, and I've been telling Tom that I want to start finding more time for reading, which the student fully supports.  I've been putting together a list of books on my Amazon wish list, but hadn't gotten any yet.

Last night when I got home,  a surprise was waiting for me, though.  Tom had made dinner reservations (sushi!), gotten me a Gerber daisy pot for my office, and had "wrapped"* up a small present.  The occasion?  Yesterday, according to the calendar made up by Erica, was our dating anniversary.  Can you believe it's been four years?  The present?  A book!

found here

He had heard about this book through our local Patch site (Do you guys know about Patch?  It's kind of silly, but we like it.  It's owned by AOL and I met the editor in chief at their HQ in the fall.  AOL's CEO came up with the idea after he wanted to take his kids volunteering one Saturday morning, but didn't know where to go or where the kids would be encouraged to participate.  It's a pretty basic idea that I laughed off at first, but it's actually kind of cool.  They fund small sites across the country and hire editors who in turn are in charge with finding local journalists to cover stories of local interest.  It's a nice way to learn about stuff in your neighborhood).

Anyway, I'm excited to dig into this book.  It's a collection of short stories based on a neighborhood that the author modeled on our town, Del Ray.  Sounds like an excellent pre-bed read, no?

*He really, really hates wrapping.  Lucky for him, we didn't have any wrapping paper in the apartment, so he stole some scrap fabric and safety pinned together a wrapping.