My new habit.

I have gotten into a new habit recently. It is one I think I inherited from my parents. Or at least I know they do this too. I get up in the wee small hours of the morning and read. My parents tell me they do this because when you get old you just get insomnia. I have often, when at their house, woken up at 4:00 a.m., with a baby or sick child, to find my parents both out in the front room reading. My excuse the last few weeks is that I wake up for the 3rd or 4th time to use the facilities and then lay in bed for an hour or so tossing and turning because I can't seem to find a comfortable position any more. Either that or woke up from some strange dream and can't stop thinking about it. So what do I do instead? I go out in the living room, turn the reading light on, plop myself in the lazy-boy, prop my feet up, cuddle into a blanket with a light read. I then read for the 45 min to hour I used to toss and turn and then I head back to bed, fall back into dreamland quickly, and for another few hours get some good hard sleep. It has actually been wonderful. I feel more rested in the mornings. And I have been able to reread a few old favorites. 3 books in one week is doing pretty good for me.

As I said, the books I have been reading have been "light reads". Which usually means I have read the book before and know the story well. But I have also thrown in a few that are new to me as well. After watching Northanger Abby on PBS last week I decided to give that Jane Austen book a reread since it has been some years since I read it last. Then when I finished that one I pulled out Sense and Sensibility since I hadn't read that one since watching the new BBC production of it and just wanted to compare the book to the film. I was then going to pick up Pride and Prejudice or some other Jane Austen when I had finished but I saw my Elizabeth Gaskell books sitting next to my Jane Austen books and decided to reread Wives and Daughters instead. I got through a number of chapters of this book but then went to the library and picked up a book that came in that I had put on hold a few weeks ago, Shannon Hale's new book The Actor and the Housewife.
I just picked it up on Thursday's library trip and here it is Saturday morning and I just finished it. (A fun read! But it also had me crying in some places). So I will be returning to Wives and Daughters today and even through the book is thick, I think I will make it through it rather quickly too.

I don't know if I really want to say I enjoy this new habit. It would be better to just not wake up several times in the night. I guess if I am going to wake up, I might as well use that time visit some of my favorite characters.