SOL13...Independent Reading

Independent Reading

     I had a few minutes in the morning before leaving for work, so I picked up one of my books sitting in the living room to read a few pages. I tend to bounce between multiple books at a time. At any given time, I could be reading five or six books. I usually have one I keep at school, one in my purse/backpack for on the go, one in the car (hard copy and audio), and one in the bedroom for before bed. Most times, there are books strewn around the living room as well. Sometimes it's more, sometimes it's less. I try to pick books from different genres so no matter what I feel like reading, I always have an option.

     In my car, I keep a hard copy YA book as well as audio books of classics, right now I'm reading The Scarlet Letter. At school, I usually try to read a YA book that can be added to my classroom library once I'm done, so I'm reading One Came Home. At home, I have several. Before bed I've been reading Fire & Fury and in the living room I'm keeping a copy of a mystery book I recently bought, What She Saw. This morning, I was in the living room so pulled out What She Saw.
     I hadn't read very much of it yet, I'd bought it on a whim last week at Meijer. I always checked the bargain books even when I have dozens at home I haven't read. It's why I avoid stores like Half Price Books because they have such good deals, and even though I tell myself I don't need anything, I always leave with more than I can carry. It's a problem. The last time I read this book was the night I'd bought it, but even so I'd still managed to get a good 100 pages in. I started looking for the bookmark showing where I'd left off. I also had a problem with choosing scraps of paper that were insanely small and hard to find. I sighed as I flipped through yet another page looking for the scrap. Nothing.
     Finally, I turned the book upset down and shook it, waiting for the scrap to fall out. Only it never did. Where the heck was it?!?! I could have sworn I put a bookmark of some sort in there, I always do. I paused with the book in midair...did I? Maybe I didn't...I tried bringing to mind the day I read it, where I sat, what was around me. If I didn't have a bookmark, I wouldn't have closed the book. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a small tiny little speck came fluttering down out of one of the pages.
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" I yelled out as I watched it glide to the floor. "Where could that have even come from?" Charlie lifted his head off the couch at my outburst, stared for a minute, and then laid his head back down. I imagined him rolling his eyes at me.
"Don't judge me. You watched me look for that bookmark. You know I'm not crazy." He didn't even bother opening his eyes. I sighed and went back to looking for my page. At least now I know I'd marked it somewhere. I started opening random pages, trying to decipher if I remembered what I was reading. Sometimes I did, and I went forward a few page. Sometimes I didn't and had to backtrack. It was a delicate process.
     Finally, I narrowed it down to the correct page and was scanning the paragraphs for what I recognized and didn't recognize. All of the sudden, a loud beeping jolted me out of my thoughts and the book fell to the floor. I was so set on finding my page, I hadn't been paying attention to time. Luckily, I have multiple alarms set and this one caught me just in time. I sadly looked down to the floor at the book that had closed itself again. I was so close! I was on the right page! I let out a long breath and picked the book back up to put it on the table. All that time spent looking for the right page, I didn't even get to actually read! As I stood up and grabbed my work bags, I promised myself to find the page as soon as I got home. Hopefully I can!