Reading

I love to read. I read alot. I would rather read than watch tv, sleep, or go to a movie. I like the way reading transports me somewhere else. Don't get me wrong. I love my life. Sometimes, I just like to be somewhere else. I also read the same books over and over again. While I am always looking for a new author or a new series, I have some oldie goldie favorites that I never ever tire of reviewing. My books have broken spines, pages taped together, worn covers. It's like having a shelf of old friends ready to pick up in my life where we last left off whenever I'm ready.

I've been told that this is not only ludicrous behavior, but also self-indulgent. I've been reminded more than once that I am so often disappointed in life because I set my expectations too high. "Life is not like a book or a movie you know," others say. Perhaps happy endings are only for books or feel good movies, but I think happy endings are for everybody. If someone could dream up the story and write about it, why couldn't it happen? Maybe this thought process is what keeps me away from scary movies or horror flicks or Stephen King novels. Some things just shouldn't be thought up at all. I have a really difficult time with movies that depict suffering or portray any kind of senseless violence against people particularly children. I've read some books (only once) that gave me nightmares for weeks and to this day I can tell you exactly what I read, which part of the book it was in, and what it was in particular that frightened me so badly.

Maybe happy endings are just for books, which is why I like to read them so often. I like being happy. I like to laugh. I like a good joke or a funny story. I think storybook justice may be simplified, but it's justice. I guess I crave order and sense and happiness in a world that is too often a scary place of unrelenting drama that never makes sense to me.

So here is a list of my favorite books. You'd know they were my favorites if you saw them, because the spines are broken, the pages dog-eared, some pages are stuffed in where they fell out, and the covers are so worn you'd think the book had been left in a rain puddle (it might have been). Sometime when you have time, or you're just looking for some good airplane reading, or a book to drop in your bag for the doctor's office, public transportation ride, beach trip, or afternoon in the hammock, check out these titles. All these books are easy reads. I promise you won't be disappointed.

Where the Red Fern Grows
To Kill A Mockingbird
Anne of Green Gables
Little Men
Jo's Boys
At Home in Mitford
Southern Discomfort
Riding Shotgun
Fried Green Tomatoes
Standing in the Rainbow
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
The Witch of Blackbird Pond
These Happy Golden Years
Song of the Lark
My Antonia
Slow Waltz in Cedar Bend
Raney
Caddie Woodlawn
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone