I'm mad about reading. I like to soak in the stories, imagining and picturing each second, each thought. I love the way books make you feel like you were part of them for a while, that you might have actually lived in there somewhere among the sentences and spaces. I get caught up in the inner dialogue of a character, the way their thoughts become yours while the pages last. They also have the great ability to inspire and teach, you can access the world’s greatest minds for 99 cents if you get it used. I like the bookstore and the endless opportunities to learn from experts, understand someone’s life or just be in another reality that one imagination came up with from nothing. I don’t do kindles, I like the smell of a book, I like the pages and the ink, and I really like hardbacks. I carry them around with me like chapstick and pull them out whenever I have spare time, like an antisocial librarian I’ll bury my face in a book to be alone in the chaos, or to be in Narnia on my lunch break.
It’s amazing to me the power of reading and how it still has the ability to capture us, especially with the sprinting speed at which entertainment moves today. It’s Casablanca and Love Actually, one is slow and processed, the other quick and speedy - like pop rocks. Every scene in modern movies is cut and edited to it’s minimum so there isn’t a single bare moment, not a second is wasted. Whether or not it’s the positive evolution of entertainment or just an increase in our A.D.D need to be entertained at cheetah speeds, I don’t know...but I don’t really like pop rocks that much anyway.
Art // Religion :: My Name is Asher Lev - Chaim Potok
Magical // Entertaining :: The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern
Children // Enchanting :: The Mysterious Benedict Society - Trenton Lee Stewart
Literature // Love :: Rules of Civility - Amor Towles
Redeeming // Sad :: The Language of Flowers - Vanessa Diffenbaugh
Fascinating // Biography :: Empty Mansions - Bill Dedman
Culture // Writing :: The Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan
Unexpected // Redemption :: The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd