For me, nothing compares to the time spent between the pages of a good book......those moments when you are smack dab in the middle of an amazing book; where you suddenly see the world in a whole new light, because the protagonist just threw us a curve ball, and the biographer finds some interesting piece of information that you never knew.....for me, this is pretty close to bliss....and if I happen to hit these moments while lounging on a beach or even in the tub with a glass of wine.....well.....it doesn't get much better than that.
I even love watching others read.....seeing Avery "read," her favorite book in my reading chair, that she is repeating from memory; fills my heart with joy. Seeing Paul sit at the computer and read articles even makes me happy, but I am ecstatic to see him buried in an old novel and burn it up in three days. Looking at my father sci-fie collection back home makes me smile; and knowing those old Louis Lamour's have been read at least ten times by him makes me want to sip warm whiskey under a wool blanket. (Odd, I know).....
I love discussing books, I love critiquing books, I love recommending books, and having them recommended. I love hearing why someone loves a book, hates a book, throws a book against the wall and gets angry at it. I actually remember my grandmother getting so mad at "that god damned thing," and tossing a novel across her living room. "Dirty bugger ticked me off!" To this day, I am still not sure if she was talking about the author or the character......
When we would go to my grandmother's, that was what we would do as a family.....sit around and read together. I am aware this sounds odd, but this was very much a female family; and with my reading grandmother reigning as matriarch supreme, we would sit in her living with no television and no radio, and read. My grandmother in her chair, me in the obnoxious velvet flowered lounger, my mother curled at one corner of the couch and my aunt in the lazy-boy under the window. My cousins would likely be laying on the floor, reading magazines and giggling about some picture they saw. Someone would inevitable read something they found annoying, hostile, unique or interesting in some way; and everyone would stop, and discuss this. This would all go on for hours....or it would sometimes be hours before anyone would say anything at all......
My grandmother was a hard-core best-seller fiction fan......anything from J.D. Robb, V.C Andrews or Nora Roberts she was all over....my grand-father on my dad side was a WWII book fan; mostly non-fiction, but some interesting communism books in there (yeah...weird)....my dad, a huge Asimov fan and Louis L'Amour junkie.....my mother read everything ever written by Jean M. Auel and just about every biography under the sun. My best friend Jaime has ever book Stephen King EVER wrote (even the ones he didn't write!!!)
And me? Well, I cut reading teeth on Judy Blume and Beverly Cleary.....by the way, for the Blume fans out there...they are currently in production for Tiger Eyes....an amazing Judy Blume YA novel. I moved on to the trashy fiction of V.C Andrews...and followed with the passion for the classics after reading Watership Down in Grade 9; and fell in love with ANYTHING Hemingway by grade 10.....now I move between fiction and non-fiction, current events, historical biographies and quests for spirituality. I crave for the determination to one day finish Lord Jim; and tackle Atlas Shrugged. I live to share new found knowledge about The Story of Stuff and the Narcissism Epidemic; and would love to talk your ear off about Hadley Richardson or Rob Bell. And I love that I get to read about Ramona Quimby all over again and introduce Avery to the classic antics of kids in pages.
Best Fiction I have as of late:
Water for Elephants: Sara Gruen
Book of Negroes: Lawerence Hill
The Red Tent: Anita Diamant
The Road: Comrac McCarthy
East Of Eden: John Steinbeck
Best Non-Fiction I have read as of late:
Love Wins: Rob Bell
The Paris Wife: Paula McLain
The Narcissism Epidemic: Twenge and Campbell
Shake Hands With the Devil: Romeo Dallaire
In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Dr Gabor Mate
Enjoy!!!!!
I get it!!! I could happily drown in a sea of books. I love, love, love reading.. sometimes I think too much, if that's possible.
ReplyDeleteIf you liked The Book of Negroes, try The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (if you haven't already).. and have you read Joseph Boyden? (Three Day Road - awesome, and Through Black Spruce - transporting).
Another incredible book I read recently on a recommendation was The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy.. very much worth reading.
If you love Cormac McCarthy, you absolutely must read what many consider to be the best novel of the 20th century. It is not for the faint-of-heart, but I can assure you that it will be one of most affecting books you will ever read, no make that experience: the deep, black well of his characterization [the psychopathic Judge, for example], the relentless track of his plot, the sheer poetry of his language. The book is called Blood Meridian. It is a gifted piece of writing and you will never read anything like it again.
ReplyDelete