Portrait of a Reader: Cherryl M.

Welcome, Cherryl! Please start by introducing us to yourself and your family.

Retired cost accountant, two adult children, both in college, married 40 years.

 

Cherryl is another reader that I first connected with through prayer in a Moms in Prayer group! She is always such an encouragement to me! So when did you first come to identify yourself as a “reader,” Cherryl? What do you most enjoy reading? Do you consider yourself a casual reader, a sporadic reader, a serious reader or an all-out bibliophile?

I enjoyed reading from early childhood, but would date my reader label to 5th grade when I won the reading contest by reading and turning in a one page book report on 52 books in the semester.  Started with the Trixie Belden books…got a library card and never looked back.

I can just see 5th grade you! So what do you most enjoy reading now?

Mostly nonfiction, travel memoirs, biographies (prefer the not so famous actually), theology, and gentle reads such as Miss Read,  Beverly Nichols and an occasional child’s book such as Wind in the Willows, Secret Garden, All of a Kind Family, Little Women…

Those are some of my favorite children’s books. (But that doesn’t surprise you at all!) What is the last book you finished and what are you currently reading? 

The last three:  A Home for my Heart!!  Summer’s Day by Mary Bell, and One Night in a Bad Inn by Christy Leskovar. Currently reading David Platt’s Radical.

Radical was a very challenging book, to be sure. Do you have a favorite time and place to read?

At night, in bed before I go to sleep. I usually get in at least 30 minutes regardless of time.

Me, too. What is the most unusual circumstance/place in which you’ve been found reading?

Always under the covers with a hidden flashlight as a child, in Doctor’s offices, waiting to pick up the kids when they were younger, on planes, trains and in boats…nothing all that unusual really.

All the places real readers read, right? Do you read physical books, ebooks, or both?

Both. Many of the books I read are older and not available as an ebook, but will do the ebook thing as I have totally run out of bookshelf space.. and it gives me the option of taking so many with many on trips or when expecting an extended wait time.

Same here. Do you buy your books, borrow them from friends or check them out of the library? (Or all of the above!)

I have done all,  try to use the library as much as possible.. again due to lack of storage. I usually loan out books more than borrow them. I have an Amazon wish list is a mile long at times.

Oh, that wish list! I love it for remembering a book I hear about and for realizing how many good books are out there yet to read, but I hate it for reminding me by its sheer length that I’ll never get to them all! Do you have any favorite foods or drinks that generally accompany your reading?

Not in bed.. but when sitting up, a cup of tea or, as Jo in Little Women, an apple or piece of fruit.

Finally, it’s true confessions time: have you ever forgotten something important (to fix dinner or that dinner was in the oven or an appointment, etc) because you were lost in the pages of a book? 

Well,… dinner might have been late a few times, but the more common thing is that I read in bed and forget to put the book down and go to sleep!

Sleep deprivation seems to be a common theme among us readers, too! Thank you so much for sharing a little bit of yourself with us today, Cherryl. We all loved getting to know you a little bit better! 

Happy Reading, Y’all!