why read?

Some people just don't get why I spend hours and hours with my nose buried in a book.

Why read, they'd say, when you can live life? Why spend a big chunk of your time in someone else's story, when you need to BE in your story?

Well, now, I have just the answer.

From Darren of An Extra Smidgen of Eternity, The Sandman Book of Dreams:

Stories are hope. They take you out of yourself for a bit, and when you get dropped back in, you're different - you're stronger, you've seen more, you've felt more. Stories are like spiritual currency.

And from the American Gods:

Fiction allows us to slide into these other heads, these other places, and look out through other eyes. And then in the tale we stop before we die, or we die vicariously and unharmed, and in the world beyond the tale we turn the page or close the book, and we resume our lives.

I rest my case.

if i were a rich girl

...I would be a perpetual student.

I'd probably study art, literature, cooking (I'd want to give that a shot, just so I can say I tried), programming (to understand how a software works is ultimately rewarding, I'd say. or I can drop that if it turns out I don't have the knack for it. no biggie. i have lotsa moolah anyway.), music (or learn how to play the guitar), and for recreation, dancing.

And of course, I would travel all over the world. That goes without saying. I'd probably hit the US first, because my sister and her family is there. And then Europe. Oh, Europe. I'd visit first London, to see if Prince William is needing a Queen (we could just click. you never know.). Then France, Italy, Switzerland, Greece...

And then for my last stop, the Caribbean. I could live there for a year, maybe two, lease a small cottage on the beachfront and spend my days just staring at the ocean. Oh I know! Learn how to swim, and eventually, scuba dive! That would be just grand.

*big sigh*

Yeah, just another day in paradise.