I found myself just eating. No! binging is the word. I was not hungry in my stomach but I just wanted something in my mouth. I had a good pleasant lunch of “akple and very gracefull delicious okro. Something I have not had in a while. Then I had yogurt for desert.
Then I was picking chocolate and nibbling and swallowing without paying attention to my stomach
I ate mindlessly. This was not conformt eating because I get peacefor my inside. It was not because I was eating any stress away. It was because I was reading a book. Yep! A hard cover book.
I haven’t sat down like this in a very very long time to read over 10 chapters of a book at a sitting. It felt rare, the turning of the pages, it felt luxurious, the feel of the paper, and the joy of discovering new words.. I haven’t had the luxury of reading a novel in a very very long while and this felt like the joy you get from buying new shoes.
It was at this point it dawned on me that I have forgotten the art of reading a novel, forgotten the bliss of getting lost in somewhat a relateable or foreign world.
I remembered how I would forget rice on fire till it burnt and the bottom part was un salvageable. The rice burning episode mostly happened when I was a reading teenager. At that stage in my life, I fell in love easily with the books and they liked me in return.
I didn’t binge those days to read. I read because it was the only option.
Actually, I read myself to hunger. Reading then was satiating I wouldn’t get up to eat till my stomach growled when the characters where running too fast and I lacked physically energy to continue reading.
Now I have forgotten how to read so much so that with every flip of a page, I want something to crunch on.
Now, with so many options and techy distractions, is it any wonder that reading a hard cover book is difficult?
In-between my reading and mindless eating, I flipped through Facebook, LinkedIn and Whatsapp. This is why I have removed kindle from my phone. It only reminded me of books I started reading and never finished just at a glance.
The paradox of life and how we lose little pleasures in the routine of life and adulthood.
I was determined to finish this book in 3 days. It is 55 chapters and I’m on chapter 39.
I’m reading Americana, a book that I have cued to read for years.
Finally this is victory. It is nothing but it is everything because I realized I lost it but I found it – I found my first love again.
BlaqGoldWrites 