Dog-eared and underlined

My wife and I own double copies of at least a dozen books. Years of similar tastes in reading and then of course, we became members of a book club. We each insist on having our own copies since we read at such different paces (me - relatively quick and she - glacial). But we can always tell our books apart. Mine are dog-eared and underlined. Circled and starred. I have conversations with authors through comments in the margins. I'm often embarrassed to lend my books out - almost like passing along a diary. I've always had grand ideas about flipping back through the pages of favorite books - relishing lines and chuckling at witticisms. But I rarely do. There are a few that I take the time to reread, to visit and experience again as the new me from the one I was the times I read them before. But usually, I'm reading through shelves of new titles, dog-earing and underling and conversing with other authors in the margins.

So, today, I've decided to flip through some of those old pages, and find some gems I've wanted to save for later. And see if my old-self, the one who underlined those passages has wisdom for this new me. This new, exhausted, pandemic-frustrated me. Over the next few days, I plan to explore these words, phrases, characters and use them as fodder to jumpstart some ideas of my own.