A teacher in high school taught us that a reader, a serious one, should always, “read with a purpose.” That lesson had a profound impact on how I approached both fiction and nonfiction. It’s an approach I still use whenever I open a book, my Nook, or the Libby app. But sometimes that purpose for reading should be for the simple joy of it.
I was browsing the shelves of a local used book store a month or so ago when I came across Ripley’s Believe it or Not Ghost Stoies and Plays. Flipping through the pages took me back to my grade school years. My school had a Reading is Fundamantal program where students got to browse tables of free books and pick one. Those days of browsing hundreds of books are some my favorite grade school memories. This paperback of ghost stories tucked away on a shelf at a used book store was the kind of book I used to search out on those RIF days.
I finished the book over the course of an afternoon last week. I didn’t take away any profound insghts on life and/or the human condition upon completion, but reading it was a couple hours of joy. Books like Ripley’s Believe it or Not Ghost Stoies and Plays remind me that sometimes the best purpose for reading is for the fun of it. Maybe that was the insight I took from the book, quite a bargain for $.50.
Reels, Records, & Reads 
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