Bernadette Benda

If you’ve been keeping tab on your calendar, then you should be quite aware that September 19th is THIS WEEKEND. In other words: it’s my birthday.

(I’m not using “that gif” yet though because there will be a Saturday Morning Post on my ACTUAL birthday.)

This is a cause for MOMENTOUS celebration as should be obvious. Last year I did “19 miscellaneous facts you didn’t ask for” (Which on a side note, one was “I’ve been blogging for 9 years” which now means that I’ve been blogging for ten years. TEN YEARS. I’ve been doing this for a DECADE. Am I old yet? Do I get to sit back with a shawl wrapped around me and stare blanked eyed as opera music plays?)

We’re not going to do the number 19 because that’s just too many, and if we do my age that’s 23 facts and that’s 13 too many (and 3 too many numbers in one sentence). So we’re going to do 9. (“And nine we’re given to the race of men, who above all else desired power…”) Because 9 is the month. September is 9th month. (Ok, faaaaaaar too many numbers going on here).

9 THINGS. I’M DOING 9 THINGS.

So here are 9 “bookish” facts, figures, etc, that have to do in conjunction with yours truly.

1: Multiple copies are the bomb

I honestly have like…three different copies of Alice in Wonderland.

2: If I was in a reading race with the Tortoise, I would lose

I won’t give myself the title of World’s Slowest Reader, but I’m not Lighting McQueen ever here. I had a goal to read 20 books this year. 20. And I hear some people read 100+. Over achievers. (Actually: hOW Do YoU dO iT?)

Disclaimer: I read a lot of nonfiction. And nonfiction is often longer, and if not longer than denser, and takes a lot more thinking. (Not that reading fiction is “dumber” just there’s a lot more to juggle with non fiction, especially historical. Facts and peoples and what not flying all over the place. Desperately trying to read naval maps, etc.)

3: Let’s talk bookshelves

Everyone has a different way of organizing their books, and as much as I LOVE the rainbow/color wheel aesthetic, I just…I could never. I HAVE to have things organized basically like a library. By genre, and then by author. It would…just bug me too see the Giver series in like four different places.

4: Not as bad as it seems

I’m am still not a huge fan of ebooks and digital downloads and internet what-have-yous (just give me the real book so I can FEEL it in my hands), but during this Disaster Year of 2020, I actually started reading some digital books and…not bad. I still enjoyed the books even though I was reading on the little screen in my phone instead of on paper in my lap.

(The big thing is though that the aesthetic is…just not there. When they say “curl up with a good book” they don’t mean with your phone/tablet)

5: Do you remember learning how to read?

I have a SUPER specific memory of learning how to read (fyi, I was homeschooled. Just…so you get the picture) I remember mom and I sitting on the couch with the big o’l book on learning how to read (my memory is that the book was HUGE. But I was a child and like the counter at the post office with sky-high) and the first sentence was *drumroll*

“See me eat.”

For my hobbit self this feels very appropriate.

6: What did I just read?

The last book I read was…The Fellowship of the Ring. (Currently working my way through Two Towers and guess what?? STILL reading Indianapolis) (ok but there is an actual legit real reason that it’s taking me so long to finish. I only read that book during dinner.)

7: Weekend mornings are bliss

In the past few weeks, months, whatever, I’ve started reading for a few hours on weekend mornings and it’s just….absolutely wonderful????? Like the mood is so chill. (It’s also really nice because for the past 3 years or something I’ve always been working on the weekends and now I’m like “Wow, now I understand why people get excited on Friday.”)

8: One book at a time??

I ALWAYS am reading more than one book at a time (sometimes three). I mean who has time to do things in a nice organized fashion that will actually make you finish the book faster by focusing?? Who has time to FOCUS?? Life is short. Stuff those books inside you’re brain like they’re M&M’s about to be stolen by an ogre.

9: A book a day keeps the doctor away

I only have ever read a book in one day once (that I recall. I’m pretty sure). It was the Giver (which is a small book anyway) I read it on a Saturday morning, sitting on the bench in the kitchen and like…just didn’t move for several hours. I’m surprised by that point I didn’t become one the wood, but somehow I managed to get to dance class after an not arrive in the form of an oaken bench.

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And uh…we’re done!!! (do you ever have the strange feeling at the end of writing a blog like….and…it’s time for curtain call???).

So yeah. That’s it. The end.