7 1/2 Habits

I guess that of the "7 1/2 Habits of Lifelong Learners" the hardest for me would be 2 (accept responsibility) and 5 (create learning toolbox), since I often have trouble with the follow-through required to reach a goal. Nonetheless, I do "have confidence in myself as a competent, effective learner" (#4), so I guess I usually get there somehow!

The habit that struck me most in this tutorial though, was 7 1/2: "Play!" That habit is part of how I came to call my blog "twibrarian" and how, at 40 years old--well out of its target demographic of teens and tweens--I found myself swept up in the Twilight phenomenon this winter. Out of what I told myself was purely professional interest in a publishing tsunami, and after recommendations from a few unlikely suspects, I picked up Twilight in February. Ever since then I have been on a roller coaster ride of enjoying fiction like I hadn't in years! In the past five months I've read and loved not only all the Twilight books, but the entire Diana Gabaldon Outlander series (6 volumes and many thousands of pages--new one coming out next month, yippee!), and most recently, Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse series.

Stephenie Meyer, Diana Gabaldon, and Charlaine Harris are unlikely to be nominated for National Book Awards (Gabaldon possibly?), but their books sure are a pleasure to read. Like John Irving and Barbara Kingsolver, two of my favorite authors in my twenties, these authors know how to tell a great story, and that is something I'd forgotten how much I loved. While I wouldn't want to banish more literary fiction from my life forever, reading these books has put me back in touch with why I love reading. I'd wager that it's why so many of us who always had our "nose(s) buried in a book" as children became librarians to begin with: jumping right into someone else's gripping story is just plain fun. Even grown-ups want to play!

So, although I've been sheepish at times about how captivated I became by Twilight and its successors, I'm outing myself here. I may not be reading things that would impress the editors of The New Yorker, but I can tell you that my television is gathering dust and that I practically feel like the kid who stayed up all night with a flashlight under the covers again. I'm not getting much sleep, and my sink is often full of dishes, but I sure am enjoying myself. That, I think, is a good thing. So, let's hear it for play!