My relationship with books...

I had a discussion with a friend where we came to the conclusion that all of our psychosis came from a point in childhood where someone just put us in the corner with a book--some kind of separation from other classmates. As in, "Well, I need to work with these kids, you are fine--just sit there and read a book." Not that that is bad--just that it explains some of our less social behavior at times.

Some of my earliest friends were books. There is something so comforting in picking up a fictional world, and wrapping it around you like a blanket--or B's snuggie as she lays in front of the fire.

A recent read described it best, "Books can be possessive, can't they? You're walking around in a bookstore and a certain one will jump out at you, like it had moved there on its own, just to get your attention. Sometimes what's inside will change your life, but sometimes you don't even have to read it. Sometimes it's a comfort just to have a book around. Many of these books haven't even had their spines cracked. 'Why do you buy books you don't even read?' our daughter asks us. That's like asking someone who lives alone why they bought a cat" (The Sugar Queen, Sarah Addison Allen p. 180). I'm allergic to cats (dogs, too). And you don't have to feed books.

Sometimes I think I have more book friends than friend friends. Goodreads.com lets me keep track of some of them. I also enjoy rereading some classics in bits and pieces via email. It is almost time to beg for another bookshelf, except B really doesn't like the design feel of a room where every available wall space is covered with a bookshelf.

The most recent?

• The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets by Eva Rice
• The Sugar Queen & Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
• The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
• Jinx by Meg Cabot
• The Weather Warden Series by Rachel Caine
• The latest Sookie Stackhouse book from Charlaine Harris
• Angels & Demons by Dan Brown

Books I'm in the middle of:

• The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King
• The Cranford Chronicles by Elizabeth Gaskell
• The latest Dresden Files book by Jim Butcher
• A Single Voice by Kristen M. Oaks
• The Psychology of Joss Whedon, edited by Joy Davidson
• So many others. . .

Books I pick up when I am feeling blue:

• Jane Austen's Persuasion or Pride & Prejudice
• Robin McKinley's Sunshine
• Katherine Paterson's Jacob Have I Loved
• Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle
• Television Without Pity's 752 Things We Love to Hate (And Hate to Love) About TV
• Black Heart, Ivory Bones--or any of the other retold fairy tales edited by Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling
• Douglas Adam's The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (all 5 in the "trilogy")
• The Book of Mormon

Or whatever mood I am in, and a certain friend is called for--a swashbuckling adventure, a glorious heartbreak, a divine passion, a sneaky caper--I will pick up something I haven't read in ages, or something that is massively careworn in the one place where a scene seduced me with its magic, as books are wont to do. And more often than not, if left alone, I will be caught reading my favorite dialogue out loud--possibly in an extremely dramatic way. . . But only when I am sure I am alone. . .

ETA: Dad & Mom came to visit for the weekend. Dad suggested that instead of another bookshelf I sell some of them--and he was tickled by the horrified look on my face and my response, "Why would I sell a friend? Would you make someone with a pet sell their pet?"