Book Binge

I had forgetten how long it'd been since I read a book for fun. Even over the Christmas break, I don't remember managing to read anything (not counting Little Gorilla, Goodnight Moon and Oliver Finds His Way - which I read repeatedly, but not for fun). I'd skimmed through Pride & Prejudice in December but only because I was teaching it in class. (Oh, now I remember, the last book was Garden Spells in October. Months ago. Sad.)

Until the weekend before last, I was on an involuntary book fast. Then, I stumbled across a new Stephanie Barron novel while browsing on Amazon. Usually, choosing a book is difficult for me, because I'm distracted by all the interesting-looking covers of books which, upon further inspection, don't actually look interesting at all (curse you, slick and trendy cover designers!). I figured I could trust Stephanie Barron, though, as she had written a series of murder mystery novels with Jane Austen as the heroine (shout out to whichever of the Bales twins - Delaina, right? - was working at the library that summer that I was looking for something interesting - she pointed me to the series which I heartily devoured. And maybe it was Bridget). So the Stephanie Barron book - A Flaw in the Blood - was delivered on or around January 9, but things kept getting in the way of my reading; things like working for a living and people who want me to help them wipe their noses.

After one of those miraculous days when my husband and I were actually off together and able to co-wrangle the Boy, I was mere pages from the end of the book. We stopped into Target to waste time before dinner with friends and I wandered into the book section there and picked up two more. One of them looked too fun to not get (Jane Bites Back - where Jane Austen is, in fact, still alive as a vampire in modern America) and the other was the third in a series that I've read (A Lion Among Men by Gregory Maguire, from the Wicked series). I put back the Lion book because, while I love the musical, the Wicked books are rather dark and allegorical for my usual pleasure-reading tastes, and I've just not been in the mood for the depth. I finished Barron that Monday night and picked up the Jane book minutes later.

Over the course of the work week, I managed to get through the Austen vampire book, but, as I had a horrible cold and the book wasn't all that compelling, it took me till Friday. Once I've downed two books in a row, though, it's hard not to keep going.

Saturday, since the in-laws came and borrowed my boy for the day, I ran off to the mall and couldn't keep myself out of Barnes & Noble despite my plan to head straight to the movies for some cheesy-romance-with-a-pretty-backdrop time (Leap Year - guy with an accent? check. predictable storyline? check. beautiful foreign landscape? check. thoroughly enjoyed it anyway? check.) In my haste, I stayed to the center aisle and found, in the 50% off stack, Audrey Niffenegger's new book, Her Fearful Symmetry. The Time Traveler's Wife was haunting and beautiful and so not science-fiction feeling, despite the whole time-travel premise, so I was pleased to find this new one, especially at a bargain. I delved into that as soon as the Boy went to bed and finished it two nights later (tonight - minutes ago).

I feel like someone who's just polished off a particularly sublime meal: sitting back and basking in the memory of its goodness without feeling stuffed. In fact, I did read instead of eating dinner. Perhaps this could be my new diet: mix in some cheesy themed novels with a few substantial ones and - voila! - I'm losing 10 pounds!