I'm reading a book that was recommended by a friend. "I couldn't pick up another book for three months", she warned. I ordered it right away.
When I mentioned the book to another friend, she said reading this book demanded time alone. I couldn't tell if my anticipation was excitement or anxiety, either way, when it arrived it sat on my bedside table for a couple of weeks. This was a heavy read in more ways than one, and a book with that much reading time demands dedication. I was already part way through another book, and I am a one-book-at-a-time type of gal. Despite my best efforts to schedule reading time into my working week, that tends to be reading for work. Bedtime is often my only reading for pleasure time...which means I get through about three pages before the eyes start to close, mind drifting despite my eyes still panning across lines. For a while anyway. If I'm lucky, I wake enough to bookmark the page, often not even that. My husband jokes that I actually read every book twice by the time I get to the end with all the re-reading to find my place.
But now, in this time of being home, I have launched into the book. Over 1,000 pages, and I am about halfway through already because I CANNOT PUT IT DOWN. It is everything I was warned and more. There are parts I want to stop reading as my eyes almost skip ahead and my fingers flick the pages as they pass. It's a work of fiction but at the same time, it's a story that has to be told. I am smitten, horrified, absolutely in the grip of this author. And I still have half the book to read! Oh joy.
When I'm not reading, I'm thinking about it. When I am reading, I need absolute privacy, the characters and their stories, their relationships demanding all my attention. I know things are going to get worse, more is going to be revealed about these characters who have so taken my attention.
Today, I snatched segments of my Sunday to hide away and read, in plain sight but alone. This time of staying home is the perfect time to lose myself entirely in a great book. So, if you'll excuse me now, I'll be heading off to read...
