book-itis. eek!

My bed is covered in books. All sorts of books: text books for the English classes, Bibles, books of notes for work, books that I’ve finished, and a gamut of books that I can’t wait to read but have yet found time to do so. Maybe that’s due to the fact that for every book I finish, I buy two new ones. It’s a strange disease I have right now, as if I’m always thirsty and can’t get enough to read, I mean drink. Yesterday, I spent the good part of a day in a chair at Borders reading through chapter after chapter, absorbing as much as I could, laughing out loud, and despising the rule that unpaid books aren’t aloud in the bathroom. (Don’t try to tell me you’ve never read on the toilet.) I just can’t get my fill of the words, the message or the knowledge offered so freely between the book cover.

Perhaps this disease is contagious though. I think I might have caught it from somewhere or someone. My friend insists on sending me packages containing new reads she just finished and insists I do the same. I get back at her and send a batch of books I’ve finished. Good friends share sickness.
(Aaaa-chew!)
The kids are just as bad at spreading the ailment. All they do are talk about stories and ask me to read. The two boys who sit next to me on the bus are enthralled by my story telling. Thankfully my adaptations of popular American stories are new and thrilling for them since they haven’t heard them back home in Uganda. Of course, I’m sure to be creative, too, and tell them ghost stories creepy enough to keep their eyes as big as saucers to the very end when the punch line comes up as a joke.
(cough cough)
Matilda is the current story book of choice. Who wouldn’t want to hear chapter after chapter with characters like Mrs. Trunchbull, a formidable woman who throws children out windows without even trying? I have to keep the copy in my room to make sure the children don’t read ahead. They’re infected, too, I’ll say.
(sniff sniff)

Thus far in my reading I haven’t come across any cures for this disease. And to be honest, I’m content not getting over this one. Instead,I’ll wash my hands only after handing over a book.