Escape

I have my Mother to thank for my love of reading.  Almost out of annoyance, she thrust me in to literature one summer.  Growing up in Tarboro, summers were hot, long, and boring.  My hometown is not quite the end of the world, but you can see it from there, so to say there's not a lot to do would be putting it mildly.  I remember whiiiining to her one hot July day about not having anything to do.  She shoved a book under my nose and I scoffed, "Reading?  School is out, I'm not reading".  Out of desperation, I conceded and opened the book.  By the end of that summer I read just about everything on our living room bookshelves. 

It is still one of my favorite things to do.  Particularly when I'm bored, sick, or just want to slow down.  On a cold gray morning, there's nothing like a fresh cup of coffee, a good book and a blanket.  Reading works well for me when I'm not feeling well, because I have a tendency to camp out on my pity pot when under the weather.  The diversion of someone else's life, problems, and fantasies are appreciated.  I especially love books I can completely get lost in.  The ones I pick up and am totally entangled from the first page.  The characters seem to jump out of the book and take on faces and voices of their own in my head.  I have been so enthralled in some stories that when I put them down, I have to snap myself back in to reality.  Ahhhh, brain candy.

I have always been fascinated by the power of the written word.  How transformative, liberating, or thought-provoking a good piece of literature can be.  I love when I read something that makes me think or peer in to the crevices of my being that usually stay repressed for whatever reason.  Or make me ask some not-so-pretty questions of myself.  All of that can happen by someone sitting down and putting their thoughts, dreams, or experiences down on paper.  Amazing.

I have devoured a 522 page novel in the past thirty-six hours.  Uh-huh, it was one of those.  I stayed up waaaaay past my bedtime lastnight, and though I was close to finishing, forced myself to put it away to get some rest.  I was ravenously devouring every word, hungry to find out what happens next. 

I finished it up this afternoon, and now I am sad.  It's over.  It's always bittersweet to find a good book and have it come to an end.  I can't wait to get my hands on another one.  So now, some crowd participation . . . . what good brain candy have you come across lately?  What are your favorite page-turners?  Leave me a comment and lemme know!