Bookworm Confessions: I Bow Out of Events So I Can Stay Home and Read

I will admit it. I am not always busy when I say I am. Many times I just want to stay home and read the book I am in the middle of. There is nowhere I rather be than curled up in my recliner with good wine and some paleo snacks are reading the night away.

I know that I am human, and humans need interactions, but seriously sometimes humanity is a way too much for me to handle. Admit it; you have felt the same way. You look at the news, or some drama breaks out, and you just want to hide in your hidey hole until either the end times comes or humanity has regained its senses.

So yes I am guilty of saying I need to stay home to write when I just want to read whatever book I just got from NetGalley.

I love that I can use books to escape. When I read a book, I feel as if I am in that world that the author has created, and I know that sooner or later all the problems will be solved.  All tied up neatly.  Most of the time. Some books leave you with the feeling of WTF but MOST times there will be a sort of happy ending.

People may think that reading is a waste of time but studies show that reading can help you develop empathy and compassion among other things. It can also give you a different frame of looking at issues you may have in real life. I know that I have had problems and after reading a book I felt relief that I am not the only one. I feel that if the author could dream it up, it HAS to have happened to someone somewhere. Even in fantasy and sci-fi, you can see behavior that occurs in real life, and you can get a different perspective. Like in Ringworld the girl leaves the dude for another guy. The world the author created was complete fantasy, but the ACTIONS were something that has happened to millions of people everywhere. You get dumped and wonder why. A million thoughts run through your head.  You wonder why that dude just disappears or that girl runs off with another dude. We see why in Ringworld and in some way to ME it is comforting to know that even people in space gets dumped, that means no one is immune and I take comfort in that.

I felt bad about lying to people and needing my alone time until I read Quiet. That is one book that has changed how I view myself. I know now that I am an extreme introvert, and I even have the anxiety to go along with it BUT I AM NOT ALONE. That in itself was so comforting to know. Once I knew myself and that I am the way I am and that I am not the only one I have become proactive in telling people I need my alone time. Most are understanding. I am a semi-hermit but some people nag me to get out more and before I would give in and take an extra Neurontin to help my anxiety but now I know tat I am not the only one so I stand my ground.

So what about you do you tell people you are busy when all you want to so is to stay home on the couch in your PJ’s on the couch with a glass of wine and a good book?  Any more semi-hermits out there????