Bookless

For some boggling reason, I found myself bookless over the weekend. My oldest daughter and I were sick and miserable, but she was a bit less miserable than me because she at least had "Because of Winn-Dixie" by Kate DiCamillo to read and I had nothing. If I wasn't feeling sorry for myself enough then not having anything to read made me spiral into the dark well of self-pity. I'm not a pleasant sick person.

Whenever I find myself in this position of being without book and the library is closed, there's nothing from my holds list waiting for me or what I did check out from the library was a dud, I go to the same place. I stand in my home library and scan titles of my books, trying to remember which ones I had read the fewest number of times and could stand to read again. This is why people shouldn't buy books, I tell myself. You read them once or twice and then don't particularly want to read them again. Children's books are meant to be read at least 400 times and most likely all in the first week of purchasing it. But adult books, nope. Well, with the exception of truly great books that stand the test of time. I've read Jane Eyre every few years and never get tired of it. Ender's Game is another standby. Mostly I own the books I do because they have personal meaning to me, not because I think I'll read them over and over again. Also, I hope that someday my daughters will read them and then come talk to me about what they read. For the most part, books are meant to be checked out from libraries, loved and returned. I'm perfectly content with that. Unless I'm bookless. Then I wish I was a buyer of any book that comes my way. Then I'd have something to read when I'm sick, by golly!

On that fateful day this last weekend, as I stood there, tissue in hand and head full of goo, I opted for "Enchantment" by Orson Scott Card. This book is possibly his best storytelling. Beautiful, layered, captivating and suspenseful it's got all the best of Card's writing abilities. One of the most amazing aspects of a Card book is the dialog. The conversations people have in his books are so real, it feels like you are eavesdropping. My guess is because he started out as a playwright, he knows how to move a story along through dialog. At any rate, it was worth another read. I think I've only read it twice, so that's better than most everything else on the shelves.

Oh wait, there's my husband's collection of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time books. Bleh. Once is more than enough for those books. They suck you in and leave you a shell of a person while you attempt to navigate it's 5,000 characters and plot lines. Of course I read every new one as it comes out, but I curse Jordan's name while I do it. Those books I will not re-read. Absolutely not. Not under any circumstances. Unless I find myself sick and stuck bookless again, but I'd have to read everything else on my shelves first.