"First we make our habits, then our habits make us."

It's amazing how we start to pick others' phrases and habits. And I'll be honest, I'm a sucker for weird habits. Some of them are so cool I want to develop them and make them my own. While others I don't realize I've picked up until much later. I've picked up the habit of saying the word "sucky" when something doesn't go quite right (thanks Dusty Skidmore) and I always carry a book with me. I can honestly say that I am a product of everyone who has touched my life in some way or another.
My old librarian would always have a book with her even when she wasn't at the library. My mom and I would run into her at the grocery store and you could see the top of some huge tome poking out of her purse. I once asked her why she always had a book with her.
Of course she shot that back with, "Because I like to read, Jessica."
And me, being my normal highly inquisitive and smart alack self, stated, "That can't be the only reason."
So my librarian told me the story of a woman from southern California who had inspired her. The woman always carried a book around with her and it never mattered where she was going. She figured that it was good odds that an earthquake would happen and she would be stuck somewhere for several hours. If she was going to be stuck, she figured she might as well have a book to read.
My librarian went on to discuss all the situations she had been put in that day that allowed her to read for even just a few minutes. She was also kind of a nerd and she always wrote down how many pages she had read and when she completed a book, she always recorded the title in her notebook.
A few days ago, I found out that this sweet and always prepared lady had passed away. In her obituary, it said that she had read an average of 6 books a week for 85 years. If you do the math, she read somewhere around 27,000 books in her lifetime.
27,000 books! That lady was amazing! I'm going to admit ever since our conversation, I've tried to have a book or something to read with me at all times. Granted, I'll probably never read 27,000 books (maybe journal articles) in my lifetime. But I'm going to try to read at least half of what Mrs. Haggard did. Though I don't think she took the opportunity to read while stuck in traffic like I do. But I doubt that she would have done it if she'd thought about it.