Reading a book all the way through is hard for me.  I am a big starter.  I am a poor finisher.  I have so many books that I want to read right now and I will still walk in Target and buy a book or search for something on my Kindle and download it.  I think reading can be an enriching experience.  It allows the mind to leave the present and travel mentally to a totally different world.  It may be a world that challenges you intellectually, or a world that stretches your imagination and has you living vicariously through some character.

It takes discipline to shut out all that is streaming in from the world around me and to sit and focus on a book.  Yet it is imperative for growth, for development and for keeping me moving mentally.  I want to read far more than I presently do.  My friend likes to read as well and yet she finds herself falling asleep. That is if she can actually find a few moments that are not dominated by her four children.  It can seem as if we are doomed to never finish a book unless we are alone at the beach with stretches of uninterupted time.  However, just recently, we have stumbled upon a new idea and I think it is fabulous…at least it has been for us.

We did have a little help from the great philosopher, Pooh, who says, “It’s so much more friendly with two,” we decided that we would choose a book and read it out loud together.  So, as we drove to the beach one weekend we took turns reading Theo Pauline Nestor’s How to Sleep Alone in a King-Size Bed: A Memoir of Starting Over.  It is a memoir about going through divorce and had been recommended to my best friend.  It was a fantastic book that kept us moving from laughter to melancholy.  The author is also a child of divorce, as am I and she speaks frankly about delving into how the demise of her parent’s marriage has affected her as an adult.  I would encourage anyone who is going through or has gone through divorce to grab a copy of Theo’s book and read it with a friend.  We loved it!

The best part of reading the book together for me was listening to another voice describe what my friend was walking through.  It gave me a better perspective on her grief, her struggles as a new single mother and her fears about her future.  For my friend, it gave her a sounding board as the issues that surfaced in the book gave her the words to express things she had been experiencing in her heart.  All in all, it was a great way to both read a book and grow in empathy for my friend.

Thoreau said, “How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book.”  I want to always be reading, always be learning and if reading with a friend keeps me reading…then I agree with Pooh and Piglet…definitely more friendly with two!  Who can you read a book with?

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