get lost (in a good way)

Today's happy thought of happiness:

Books.

I currently have 15 books (plus a bible and a diary) stacked on my bedside table. Why? Because it's more fun to read books than to put them away, of course! I think I've read more novels in the last year and a half than in the previous 5 years, and I'm loving it. So many stories, so many mysteries and adventures, images and intrigues. And so many of which I'd never read before.

The Day of the Locust was utterly bleak, with its portrayal of a Los Angeles where everyone is acting and even the houses are superficial. To Kill a Mockingbird was perfection. Pride and Prejudice was a lot more accessible than I'd imagined. I've gotten wrapped up in Wimsey mysteries and the Liveship Trader fantasies. I've thoroughly enjoyed Chandler's Marlowe crimes, both for the hard-boiled grit of the stories and the surprisingly natural description of their settings. And I've laughed at the tropes-before-they-were-tropes of Dracula.

I feel almost like I'm discovering something new in books, but I'm not — it's a rediscovery. I used to read so much I'd be late for my ride to school. I think I just wore myself out reading The Lord of the Rings seven times over in fairly quick succession, leading to a twelve-year dry spell. But it sure is good to be back with my nose in a book, losing myself in another world, letting my imagination roam again.

My current read, a mystery called The Floating Admiral, has chapters written by fourteen different authors. It's not the most coherent story, and the authors keep subtlely venting their annoyance at the frayed ends left by those writing before them, but it's quite interesting and not a bad mystery. Next up is another Chandler. After that...