Favorite Book - Like a new friend

Anything by Judy Bloom, Babysitter's Club, Nancy Drew. The spooky stories of Christopher Pike, Ramona Quimby. All of these books bring up nostalgia for me. Thinking of nights hiding under the covers with a flashlight, turning pages quietly as to not get caught. Devouring the plots and images and characters until I'd finished every word. So many stories all stealing sleep, or filling rainy days with adventures. And I wonder how many of us book nerds discover a favorite book as a child. How many of us cling to a story as a child or young adult that resonates with us because it is the first time in our life someone outside of ourselves has written our truth. I can't help but ask people their favorite books and most share stories about books that changed their lives. Allowed them to escape or experience something they didn't know was possible. The retired English teacher/Librarian who told me once her favorite book was To Kill a Mockingbird. The other friend who fondly recalls a summer in Puerto Rico visiting a grandmother while reading the entire Little House on the Prairie series. So often it is more than just the book, but the experience and the time of life where we are met with the unexpected connection to characters and storylines.

Up until last week, I would have rattled off a list of books as my favorites - most of which discovered as a late teen or right around college. Books that I encountered at a pivotal time in my life of self-discovery. Books that I read when majoring in English, switching to communications, Psychology, Drama, and back to English again. Books where I felt myself on the pages, that the words didn't only belong to the author. At 42, I never really thought I'd have that experience again. A discovery of a book that hit all the best spots. That had delicious phrases, empowered women, all of the right elements to surpass the hundreds of books I've read to move it's way to the top of my list.

Yet, last week, I read that book. An accidental find my wife picked up while browsing at the library while our daughters fought over computer time. An impulse grab before their patience at the library ran out and they had to come home. And once she finished it, she encouraged me to read it - like she has the 20 or other so literally at the bottom of a stack next to my nightstand. Always thinking I'll get to them, but other books always end up on top. Only this time, I decided to start it right away.

Usually I finish books in a day or two. A very rapid reader (thanks to the speed reading class my parents encouraged me to take at the start of college), I fly through the pages of most books. But this one, this one I refused to read quickly - savoring each section, each chapter, each page. Drawing out my reading of it because I wanted to enjoy every single word. No skimming, no rushing, just reading. It was like making a new friend as an adult, a difficult, but not impossible task.

It was sooo good in fact, I've ordered my own, since I do have to return it to the library - and I cannot wait to start reading it again.