A ShopRite Clearance Book About Sharks Restored My Curiosity

Okay so Disclaimer: I'm a nerd.

Not like the cute smart girl nerd, I mean obsessed with the use of tone in a sentence, will nitpick an author's sentence it'll take me two days to read a page, spend ALL of my time researching random things and falling in love with sounds type of writing nerd.

So no surprise I'm obsessed with Shark Week just like everyone else. I'm in the ShopRite checkout line with my mom next to their bin of books on clearance, and I see a cover with a shark fin on it and I'm geeking. It's based on Shark attacks in New Jersey since 1916 and my heart is racing.

I. Need. This. Book.

I pull the usual antics that I perfected at six to secure this book in my possession, with my mother's money (Thanks Mom for always buying me books! I love you!)

Next thing I know, I'm sitting on the beach on a Tuesday morning, completely enveloped in Michael Capuzzo's graceful and thoroughly researched words. He hasn't even mentioned sharks yet! And I genuinely didn't care, I was placed in the Eagleside Hotel in Atlantic City experiencing a summer vacay of the 1900's.

Never had I been more interested in history. Of course, it was all about the shores of my beloved New Jersey, but damn. I hadn't felt this curious about a subject in a while. And there it is, the word, curious.

When was the last time you heard someone talk about being curious? And I mean genuinely authentically curious about a subject, not for the latest tea spilled, or what new shoes your favorite athlete is dropping soon.

I mean the type of curious where you learn something, the type that pushes you academically.

For me, that would be elementary school. That's sad.

I sat here on the beach at the end of July racking my brain about curiosity and what it means and how it drives our core beings as individuals on this earth. Without it, we would have nothing. Literally nothing.

So why did I feel like I was just discovering that itchy giddy feeling we first got in elementary school when we were told we could be anything we wanted and wanted to do it all?

I didn't think I lost it, but I did.

Weird right? But then this random book I found sparked it again, and here I am knee deep in 1961 new jersey in the middle of a shark attack.

It was such a good personal find and reminded me of why I loved reading in the first place, something I lost along the way in high school and in college classes.

So here's your reminder to never stop being curious and don't let the damn schools squash that for you!

Check out Michael Capuzzo's "Close To Shore" if you love sharks, nonfiction, or New Jersey!

Find the book here!