Paradise Regained

Its snowing here in Memphis, which is a rare phenomena. Thanks to the winter storm that's playing havoc in the east coast and upper central America. But for us it is a beautiful sight outside. Mild snowfall forming a gentle white coating on the grass. Sitting pretty on top of the trees, these little snow flakes refuses to melt into the chilly wintry air. Sipping hot chocolate inside my warm abode, I can't help but marvel at this beautiful picture that nature is drawing in front of my eyes. So I am sitting in front of my big window watching it snow and blogging simultaneously. 

Its been a while since I blogged. I missed this place. This place is like my agony aunt. I visit her with my long list of complaints, frustrations, pleasures, silly things that make me happy and even sillier things that make me grumpy. So what's this post going to be like? I don't know yet, but I am not going to dwell much on that.

So many books, so little time (and many more on my book shelf).

As I am typing this post out I am extremely conscious. I have a book - Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss staring right back at me, asking me if I am placing my commas and apostrophes at their right places. I don't think so. Yes, I need to work on my punctuations. Which is why I borrowed that book. Because I want someone to tell me what I am doing is not right. How can I become a good writer (will there be a comma here? Oh dear God help me) if I can't punctuate properly? I want to become a writer, not a book writer but web content writer. So I asked myself the other day, if I am qualified to be a good writer and I heard myself saying that I will be once I get my grammar and punctuation right. I personally believe that to become a good writer one has to read a lot. So I took the 20 books a year challenge on Goodreads and made a list of books - fiction, non-fiction, parenting and self help books that I plan to read this year. Yes, when it comes to books I am always over ambitious. I want to get my hands on every beautiful book that catches my eye (yup I tend to judge the book by its cover but only the book). Take me to a book store or a library and I feel like a kid in a candy store or a toy store. As a child I was never into books much except the occassional tinkle and tinkle digest. Though I got a few Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books, I never really got around finishing it much (over ambitious, even then ha). Its only when I got to a all women's college that I started taking reading to the next level, the level where one reads the book from cover to cover. With my girl friends' recommendation I started reading Sidney Sheldon and Danielle Steele. Today when I look back I regret for missing out on reading a lot of books as a child and teen. That is why I want to give my son the wonderful gift of reading. Here in the US the libraries are to die for (ah well you get my point right). So we go once every two weeks and check out as many books as we can get our hands on. We have also subscribed to Shelby County books from birth. The books are super awesome and absolutely free. Thanks to Dolly Parton and her dream of making every American child read. We have also subscribed to Highlights and National Geographic Little Kids magazine for our son. There are plenty of resources out there if you know what you want for your child. The idea is to get them introduced to reading. Honestly, if a child doesn't see his parents read, he will never get interested in it himself. So get out, get a library membership, look for second hand book stores, hunt for book deals and if you can't find any of the above go to a book store and invest in some books. Its an investment worth every penny. Regain that paradise.