Hazards to Your Health Don't Include Reading!

I read. I read a lot. I read everywhere I go and with just about everything I do. Even if I am not "hands free," I try to find a way to read. I read newspapers, but not always the main articles. Sometimes the small and obscure ones that nobody else notices catch my eye, because they're usually short, sweet, and to the point. Catching up on the news on the Internet, I came across an article entitled, "Why You Shouldn't Text and Walk." I've heard and agree that texting while driving is a bad idea, but apparently, being too wrapped up in your text messages is bad for your health while walking as well. Just ask the woman who ended up falling into a fountain in the mall because she couldn't take her eyes off of her phone long enough to see the man-made pond in front of her. Lesson learned: from now on all of the reading that I do will be done while I'm stationary, as I have no desire to take an unintentional dip in ANY pond, man-made or otherwise. While you're pondering the possibilities of where you'll read your next book, text, newspaper or magazine, keep reading this article to get a few ideas on WHAT to read.

A loner and a misfit, high school freshman, Xing Xu is one of the only Asian students at his all white school. Bullied by the other students because he is different, Xing ducks into the school music room, where the teacher assumes Xing is auditioning for the school musical. Meanwhile, high school sports star, Justin Dorsey is found murdered, and when two other students go missing, Xing is targeted as a suspect in "Crossing" by Andrew Xia Fukuda.

Detective Benny Griessel's main goal is just to stay sober. After stepping on the toes of too many higher-ups, Benny knows his chances of ever getting a promotion are next to nil, so he puts his energies into mentoring a new generation of crime fighters in South Africa. When an American backpacker disappears, Griessel and his colleagues have a mere thirteen hours to save the girl in "Thirteen Hours" by Deon Meyer.

After her father passes away, Bijou Roy leaves Washington D.C. to travel to her father's native India, intending to scatter his remains in the river that runs through his native city. Meeting Naveen, the son of her father's closest friend, leads Bijou to discover the intimate details of her father's life and the family history that holds the key to replacing her deep sorrow with hope in "Bijou Roy" by Ronica Dhar.

Darius Jones has it all; a lucrative basketball career, a lovely wife and a son he adores, but when a drunk driver slams into his car, his wife becomes comatose with only a 50 percent chance of survival. "Darius Jones" by Mary B. Morrison continues the drama in the lives of characters made famous in her Soul Mates Dissipate series.

Dark secrets threaten to blanket the glossy facade of the perfect life in a suburban community where a murder had been committed twelve years earlier. Librarian, Betsy Treading was tried and convicted and later exonerated for murdering her neighbor, Linda Sue. Released from prison, Betsy returns to her old neighborhood, delving into the details of the murder in an attempt to uncover the identity of the real killer in "Neighborhood Watch" by Cammie McGovern.

The master of horror returns with a quartet of stories that will curl your hair in "Full Dark, No Stars" by the one and only Stephen King. From "1922," a tale of murder and madness to "Big Driver," the story of a woman seeking justice after being victimized to "Fair Extension," the shortest and funniest of the tales to "A Good Marriage," one with a horrifying discovery, these tales will generate the chills that even the dead of winter cannot.

Where you read doesn't really matter. It's WHAT you read that does, and at the Jasper County Public Library, we have enough new fiction on the shelves to make your trip worthwhile; just make sure that when you do check out books, you wait until you're stationary to start reading them.