lost in a good book

lost in a good book

Earlier this month I felt a strong urge to read. Not to finish any of the twenty or so books on metaphysics, personal finance, health, etc. that I have in stacks by my bedside and throughout the house. No way. Fiction. I wanted to lose myself in a delicious story, like I used to do every summer (and pretty much every other spare moment) when I was a kid. Reading late into the night. Waking up smelling bacon cooking and choosing to luxuriate in bed with my novel until the last possible moment when I was called to the table. Draping myself over chairs, sprawled out on the grass, on the floor of my father’s study… shifting positions only when necessary, nary an eye straying from the words on the page. Oh, I would live in those books! I will never forget being called away from Jane Eyre to help set the table for dinner – tears streaming down my face, inconsolable about the turning point in Jane’s story. My mother quipped ‘I don’t remember liking Jane Eyre THAT much.’ I loved every nuance of every chapter, and you would rarely see me without a great novel by my side. I don’t know why I ever stopped reading fiction! Well, I do still, on occasion, like when my cousin who works in publishing sends me advance editions from my favorite current writers. Maybe I don’t want to risk a bad experience, even though when I get a recommendation from a friend, I’m rarely disappointed. It’s probably more likely that I don’t allow that level of self-indulgence. Because… when I’m into a book, guess who stays up late and doesn’t want to get up to take care of anybody, guess who’s too busy to get dinner ready.  There’s definitely a bubble around me when I’m in a novel, and it’s tough to penetrate – I like it that way! Well, I’m thrilled to tell you, this month I read four novels, three of them in rapid succession (by the same author), and I delighted in every sentence! I stayed up late, I slept in late and read in the mornings, (I didn’t make many dinners), I feasted on words.  July has been a wonderful, luxurious retreat! I’m fortified, my mind buzzing in the space between reality and fiction, ready for my next adventure.