In keeping with last week’s blog on personal reading, I’m thinking about how, over the years, my reasons for reading a book have changed. When I was a teenager, I would read a book to find out what might happen if I married:

1.) a rich man

2.) a poor man

3.) an executive

4.) an artist

5.) a pirate (not really but it’s hard to avoid them in books, though they’re scarce in rural Virginia)

And what if he turned out to:

1.) have a secret life

2.) be a gambler

3.) find a treasure map no one knew about before

4.) be a faithless drunk

5.) be a real prince

…well, you get the picture. In other words, when I wasn’t reading for school, I read to see what grown-up authors — who were certainly wise because after all, they were authors! — were saying should, could, or would happen to women who married into these different situations. The choices they made, and what happened to them helped me see how I should navigate the grown-up world.

Now that I have been married many years to a prince, (thanks in part to my youthful reading, perhaps), I no longer read for the same reasons. Now I read, in part to:

1.) become closer to the Lord

2.) challenge myself

3.) catch up on the classics

4.) keep up with the latest trends

5.) stay informed

And yes, I do read for fun, too. And I’m still a romantic. Some things never change.

Your turn:

What type of books did you read as a teenager?

How have your book reading habits changed over the years?