Books!

I love to read. I've loved to read my entire life and I'm almost never happier than when my nose is in a book and my head and mind are somewhere far away.  My sister and I talked about books when I was up there for a visit last week.  I was amazed at how much she reads. My Mom loved to read also. She doesn't do it anymore, and that makes me sad. If she wants to go somewhere, do something or be happier, all it takes is the cracking of a book.

My favorite book of all time is The Count of Monte Cristo.  It has a little bit of everything for everyone. If you haven't read it, get the abridged version and try it out. I love it.  So far my two eldest children have read it, and my husband is trying to slog his way through the unabridged Kindle version. I feel sorry for him.















 I have a confession ... I love Stephen King books. People roll their eyes, they tell me he's not really literature, he's trash, too sexual, too gore filled, too profane.  I should be reading things that expand my mind, teach me something, enhance my life experience.  I agree. Just not always.  Everyone needs a little escapism.

I hate to admit it, but I read every one of the Eclipse series. I started reading them because I wanted to know if they were appropriate for my 12 year old to read (NOT) and what the fuss was all about.  Well, I hate to admit it, even though Bella is a simpering, co-dependent idiot and Edward is a controlling, pompous (way too old for her) Vampire, I was hooked.  I found grammatical errors and poorly written sentences, (can we say way too many parenthetical phrases)  (yes, I am doing that on purpose for irony's sake).  Anyway, these books are not an example of great literature, not even close, however, the story had some interesting ideas and really took you a different direction from common thought. That's why I liked them, they intrigued me.  I have not seen the movies, nor do I want to.  By the time I got to the fourth book, it was way too sexual for me, I wish she would have stuck with the interesting plot developments and left the porn for Hustler.

 Instead of that inappropriate book series, I recommend The Hunger Games ... those are good books that suck you in and are so enjoyable and they are so chaste.  I just love that they are out there for my kids.  I recommend Harry Potter also. Such a well conceived idea and so well written with regards to plot lines and character development.  They are good movies also.


My sister has a notebook, nothing fancy, in which she has been writing down books she has read over the years. It's quite the document.  I was inspired to do this myself, so I went and got a tiny notebook and began to list all the books I remember reading. Of course, I'm a voracious reader, so I won't ever cover them all, but I'm making progress. I've got my grouped right now. I love Patricia Cornwell so I've gotten all hers written and then put a mark by the ones I would like to read in the future.

Of course Mr. King has his own several pages. I thought I'd read everything he'd ever written, but after going through the Kindle, I have found several which escaped me.  I will be adding those to the list and now that the series is complete, I will read The Dark Tower series again.  It's a little too much Fantasy like for me, but I'll do it for Stephen.  I think folks who enjoy fantasy might take a little foray into that series.  It's very good.

Robin Cook, Dean Koontz, Sue Grafton, John Grisham ... I'm very commercial, can you tell?  They are among my favorite authors.  Medical thrillers and detective stories are always a good read.  I also very much enjoyed The Professor and the Madman (true story about the creation of the dictionary).  Something you never think about ... how did they do that?  Read it, and find out. I loaned my copy out to someone and it's never come back to me. If you have it, I'd like it back.

 Right now I'm reading The Devil in the White City. It's a true story about the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, intertwined with a true story about a serial killer who was operating in that same era.  Pretty interesting. Did you know the Ferris Wheel and the Pledge of Allegiance were created for that event? I didn't.  I also know that I would never have wanted to live in Chicago in those times. Yuck.  Can we say unsanitary?

 I love books. Over the years I've read Crime and Punishment, A Tale of Two Cities, David Copperfield, The French Lieutenant's Woman, Grapes of Wrath, Invisible Man, Sherlock Holmes, The Red Badge of Courage, The Scarlet Letter, The Red Tent, The Kitchenhouse and most recently, Deliverance.  It's a wide range of topic and style.  That's what is so great about reading. If there is one thing I'm grateful for it is the ability to lose myself in a book.  My mother passed that love to me, and I'm passing it on to my children and trying to pass it to my husband.

How do you feel about reading? Do you read? What do you read? How do you make the choices? Convenience? Price? Topic? Style? Genre? Author? Recommendations?  Tell me about your reading choices and what you love about a good book.

Wanna take a trip?  Perform magic? Meet people? Learn new things?  Simply open a book and you have that ability.  No money? Go to the library or download free books. No time?  Make time. It's simply the best thing ever!  I think if you asked me to choose between chocolate and reading, I would choose reading. It's a much longer lasting high!