“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance…”  Ecclesiastes 3: 1- 8, KJV.

“To Everything there is A Season…Turn, Turn, Turn.” The Byrds.

This week Christina Sinsi shares all about her reading life. Click To Tweet

This is my second turn writing a blob post about my reading life. Earlier, I talked about my favorite books—today, I wanted to do something different. First, I read through the most recent entries so I wouldn’t repeat a theme too soon.

And then, as happens most of the time in my writing life, God provided the theme.

You see, in the spring, I will turn 60. When I think of a reading life spanning over 50 years now—I became a voracious reader as soon as I could somewhere around third grade which is pretty amazing since I started first grade without any preparation or kindergarten—I realize I have gone through many changes and seasons—each beautiful in its own way.

As a child, I read childish books. Then, in middle and high school, I went on a quest of reading every classic book I could get my hands on so that I would be “educated.” That is, when I wasn’t devouring romance novels, aka bodice rippers. Some of my favorite authors were Danielle Steele and Barbara Taylor Bradford, besides Jane Austen and Sir Walter Scott.

Then, in college, I had no time to read anything that wasn’t assigned. I did consume a lot of pages in English literature and history and my actual major of psychology. Somehow, in graduate school, I found a lovely used bookstore in Manhattan, Kansas called “The Dusty Bookshelf” and rediscovered my love of romance and fiction.

After graduate school, cue babies and children’s books again—as the seasons turned back in time.

I reread classics aloud with my children. Turn.

But before we begin to think of life as just a circle, I have uncovered a whole new love (in addition to romance which will always be a part of my life) and that is Christian apologetics. With the advent of audiobooks and a desire in my later years to become more disciplined in my Christian walk, I am listening to one book after another digging deeper into God’s word. Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?

In a few years, I have the hope of grandchildren—and more read aloud children’s classics.

So, the seasons of reading, bring summers of abundance and winters of work, but God indeed does walk us through the seasons of our life—and of our reading.

In which season of reading, do you find yourselves, dear reader?

 

 

Christina Sinisi is a member of the American Christian Fiction Writers and a charter member of the Lowcountry South Carolina chapter of ACFW. Christina Sinisi writes stories about families, both the broken and blessed. Her works include a semi-finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest and the American Title IV Contest in which she appeared in the top ten in the Romantic Times magazine. Her published books include The Christmas Confusion and the upcoming Sweet Summer, the first two books in the Summer Creek Series, as well as Christmas On Ocracoke. By day, she is a psychology professor and lives in the Lowcountry of South Carolina with her husband and two children and cat Chessie Mae.