oh.my.

I guess you could say I'm an avid reader.

I grew up reading everything in sight.

 At nine years old,

I read Gone with the Wind

 (in 5 days)

 I was in love with Rhett Butler.

the second he walked into Twelve Oaks for the barbeque..

 But really, who wasn't?

 Is it any wonder that I studied english & literature?

The lit courses were my absolute favorite in college.   Maybe it was my brilliant professors, but probably not.

 It was the books.

My absolute favorite books

 {of all time}

 are the ones that are old and weathered and falling apart at the spine. 

The gentle vanilla-almond-papery (?) scent of really old books is intoxicating. 

But, new books are just as fascinating to me.

  

I borrowed a book before I took a trip to California in November (Jackie, Kateigh, Allisen... I'm not sure which one lent it to me) - the first in a series by Nora Roberts...

  After I read the first book,

let me tell you,

 I quick,

 whipped out my iPhone

and searched on my amazon app to find out if I could download the second book to my phone

 - credit card ready in hand.

  I didn't bother to check for shipping dates,

because I needed it right then and there because I needed to start it right away.

  Well, at 2am,

after searching for about 10 minutes,

giving up and just google-ing it,

I was disappointed to learn that Book two had not yet been released. 

Worst feeling ever.

Nothing like hopeful anticipation to be squashed with the red-tape of it not even being available yet.

So in the bookstore, I happened across this book 2 and picked it up and (again)

let the happy dances continue down the aisle.

Once I started, I couldn't stop.

This is an excerpt from that book that I stayed up reading until 4am.

{when i finished it}

I love books that pull me in like this one did.

When I read,

 it's like my imagination is jump-started;

like I have a little movie playing in my head.

My brain just fills in all the rest of the details of the scene without questions. 

It's amazing really.

***  

   "But don't worry, no need to run for the hills.  I'm responsible for my own feelings, my own needs, my own choices.  And I'm done here.  I'm done with this."
     "Hold it."  He wondered his head didn't explode.  Maybe it already had.  "Wait a damn minute so I can think."
     "Time's up, thinking's over.  Don't touch me now," she warned when he started toward her.  "Don't even think about putting a hand on me.  You had your chance.  I'd have given you everything I had.  If you'd needed more, I'd have found it, and given you that.  It's the way I love.  It's the only way I know how.  But I can't give where it's not wanted and valued.  Where I'm not."
     "Be pissed off."  He snapped it out.  "Break dishes.  But don't stand there and tell me I don't want you, don't value you."
     "Not the way I want or need.  And trying not to want, Jack?  Trying not to love you the only way I know how to love?  It's breaking my heart."  she grabbed her bag.  "Stay away from me."
    He slapped a hand on the screen door to stop her.  "I want you to sit down.  You're not the only one with things to say."
    "I don't care what you want.  I'm done caring.  I said stay away from me."
     She looked up at him then.  It wasn't temper or heat in her eyes.  Those he would've ignored until they'd burned this out.  But he had no power against her pain.
     "Emma.  Please."
     She only shook her head, and, pushing past him, ran to her car

***

- Nora Roberts, "Bed of Roses" (Book Two of The Bride Quartet series)





What's your favorite genre?  Favorite author?  Favorite series?