The blissful delight of an unputdownable book

I’m a voracious reader, and my husband reads quite a bit, too. My kids, not so much, despite our best efforts. They prefer to listen to stories (either with us reading them to them as a bedtime story or on an audiobook) than to read words on their own, although they do read a little bit daily. This quantity is foreign to me, because as a kid, my nose was always in a book. Tons of them. Sure, my mom read me bedtime stories, but I generally just read. Also, while I would listen to stories every once in a while, on a record or later on a tape, I was too impatient and always wanted to read fast and get to the good stuff.

But the tides have turned. My kid has a book she won’t put down. And yes, it’s Twilight.

I am so heartily amused.

First, I love seeing her with her nose in a book. Blue glasses perched on her nose, joining me in my room, cuddling up on the bed with a paperback, for hours and hours. She’s excused herself from TV to go read. From YouTube to go read. This is an amazing turn of events. I can see her progress in the thick paperback book, going to about half of it in just two days. For her, that’s a ton of reading.

She’s also started a “book club” with her schoolmates. They’ve arranged time over Microsoft Teams, with their teacher supervising, where they chat about books. So her need to discuss the book is about equal to her need to read it, which I also find amusing.

But I also love the simple pleasure of seeing someone else find an unputdownable book. That feeling—that you have to read, have to know what comes next, and at the same time don’t want it to end—is my favorite feeling. I’m getting a contact high from watching her get absorbed in a story and knowing what that’s like. I bet it’s the same feeling all those teachers felt watching their kids read Harry Potter.

What’s a book you’ve recently read that’s unputdownable? I’ve had many. Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston. I stayed up until 4 am to read that one. Hell Hath No Fury by R.C. Boldt. Love Me Whole by Nicky James. (Get the audio on that one.) Those are just since quarantine, but I’ve had so many more. My wish is that you find another one soon.