Don't blame it on the holidays

So I've been out for a while... haven't touched my blog for 18 days. I'm not too proud about that, but hey, the holidays are here and I've been shopping a lot. I have to admit though... I'm a lousy shopper. It took me two weeks to buy Christmas presents for a few people, while it takes others two hours to buy presents. Shopping, traffic, work... you know, they take much of my time. Nevertheless, it's really not the holidays that have kept me away from writing. I've just been too lazy to write. So maybe, just maybe, I should go back to being an "e-mailer." Someone (I'm not mentioning your name to protect your identity) told me that he would have been a shame to bloggers had he joined in, so he should remain as a modest e-mailer. I'm trying to decide if I should adopt the same mentality. I think not, I'll just give it one more try. It's worth it. Always fun to write.
My days are still busy, but I will be back before Christmas. I've got a few things to share with you all. Until then, have a safe flight, a good evening, and a nice day! Choose what applies ;)

Now... another!

Along with my writing revival, came another one. That of reading. I have always been an avid reader, ever since I was young. However, for the last few months, I am ashamed to admit, I hardly read anything. Besides all the emotional ups-and-downs, I just could not commit to one book and finish it. I tried rereading my favorite all-times, some Jane Austen material, some Wuthering Heights, Huck Finn, but I found them bland and missing the kick that captured my attention the first time. Over the summer, I had lost my love of reading. But before I go to my present state, let me reminisce about the best memories ever... my sisters and I reading on the couch. We weren’t one of those kids who were born with a book, but we developed the love of reading pretty soon. One memory that will stick in my mind forever is that of one special book, Al Mir’aat Al Sehriyya (Arabic for The Magic Mirror). My little sister Jimmy loved it so much that she made me read it to her, I would say, 10 times back-to-back. Everyday. And it was a pretty long book. Serious reading though started in our early teenage years when we spent all of our summers laying on the couch and reading… from love stories to adventure stories, and later, Shakespeare and hard-core English literature. Our favorite, of course, Pride and Prejudice. I think we know all the famous sentences in that book by heart. I loved novels and nothing else until graduate school. In the past two years, I switched my attention to academic books, those that explain how and why things happen. My preference? Anything media-related. Long story short, I am reading again. Raluca was so kind to lend me Hamilton’s (our dean) Casanova Was a Book Lover. I’m in the first chapter, so there isn’t much to say, but I like it so far. I know this is a book I cannot wait to finish.
First writing, then reading... I wonder what’s next!