Books

My girlfriend came and “kidnapped” me today.  She told me to get dressed, she’d come pick me up at 11 and she would return me when either I got tired, or I collapsed on the floor… Kind, isn’t she? 😝 I tried telling Don that I was in fear for my safety and I was about to be stolen from him and Jerry, and he just said, “Oh good, nobody will bother me when I’m watching TV.”  The love, I tell you… So she arrived, and we went off to the mall where she used to work before she retired (cancer is a distressing and unpleasant experience)  We walked around a bit, stopped in the store where she had worked, we both bought sunglasses (matching ones, too!) looked at some other shops, bought some baklava (tastes homemade and utterly delicious) had lunch, and generally had a very fun day.  It was pouring rain and grey, overcast, chilly, damp and otherwise a perfect day to be in the mall or else curled up under a blanket with some hot chocolate and some good books or magazines.  When I got back home, I was largely ignored by Jerry, who is still pretending that I don’t exist, and the boys are dozing on the sofa.  It’s still wet and miserable outside and I’m wearing my OfDon snuggly blanket with a cup of tea.  This goes on my list of good days with fun outcomes.

I read an article today about “lost books” — something that my other bibliophiles will understand and applaud.  A lost book is one that you read once upon a time, and it seems that nobody else has heard of it.  It’s a book that you really enjoy, but it’s either out of print or it’s next to impossible to find.  The article referred to a book that my sister had given me years ago, and it’s just amazing.  The book in this case was The Hounds of the Morrigan  It’s a story of a brother and sister, Pidge and Brigit, about Cooroo the fox and magic candies and a lot more details that I remember disjointedly.  But the book (which I immediately went and dug out of my bookcase) pulled me back into the magical world that I remember.  There’s another, called Dragonworld which was about the need to find a warrior to battle against an evil dragon that wants to destroy all of the world.  That one lives on the bookcase in my bedroom in Trinidad, so I couldn’t dive back into it.  Anyway, these lost books are the kind that almost nobody besides me has ever seemed to read.  I can find a few thousand Harry Potter fans; incidentally my sister also introduced me to this series over my protests, but nobody who’s ever read either of these two. (And a few dozen others that I have preserved on my shelves.)  The fun, weird thing with these is that if I pick one up again, I get lost in the magic, and will reread them as avidly as I did the first time!  There are others, which are like mysterious gems that sparkle and draw me into a new universe.  Admittedly, several popular books have a similar effect, but for myself I really love the “secret” books where if someone mentions it, it’s like we’re part of a closed, secret society with enchantment woven through our interactions.  I’m thinking back *mumble* years to high school, when my friend and I used to recommend and exchange books regularly.  She and I often alternated as library prefect, and if one of us read a gripping book, we’d hold on to it and give it to the other to borrow on the day we exchanged library books.  She reminded me that I introduced her to The Hobbit and I remember that she introduced me to Animal Farm.  (Why those were never a set text I don’t understand! Although if they were, I might not have enjoyed them as much)

I’d love to find people who enjoy these books that I do, where I can discuss them and see the sparks light up that they enjoyed it.  People know that I love reading, and that I read an eclectic selection sometimes switching genres in a single day.  I have one friend who thinks I’m nuts because I’d rather read than watch TV, and I’ve had people accuse me of sulking or moping because I prefer to sit with a book instead of drinking heavily.  I still prefer paper books over ebooks, but I appreciate the convenience of ebooks where I can carry a thousand books on my iPad and never run out of reading material.  I remember the days when I had to pack books to go on holiday, and I’d run out of reading material quickly and equally I’d run out of packing space because the books were thick and heavy.  But paper books have that lovely book smell (yes, I know it’s something that people will describe in the worst possible terms!) and you don’t worry about running out of power (happens to me often!) or having transcription errors, (also have that problem)  and they can sometimes be heavy… blah blah blah.  I love my books, I’ll happily read ebooks, and I want the best of both worlds.  If anyone wants to provide me with a book, I’d recommend that you check with me before you buy one — I may have it already, or it may be one of the (few) that I wouldn’t reread.  And for reasons I don’t understand, I’ve been threatened with dire consequences if I get any more bookcases, because my 4 are all crammed full and I won’t get rid of any of them.  

And now, I’m diving back into one of my lovely magical worlds (just for clarification, magical worlds don’t necessarily require wizards and witches or the actual use of magic.  Just that they are worlds separated from this reality by the pages of the book.)  Do enjoy whatever hobby you have, and I’ll return to my own to learn whether they escape the predicament they were in when I left them!  Good night my loves!  Sweet dreams!