16 January 2007

i daresay, i've been caught.

i am caught in the midst of a very good book and cannot put it down. it is the type of novel that grabs you and leads you into it's world with wide welcoming arms. i await the lazy times when i can read it. i even missed the golden globes to savor it. i am dying to find out the end while simultaneously wishing it to never end. hoping that the main character could live forever with me, like a best friend, whom i could call on to find out the fates in her future.

this book reminds me of the days when i was reading Gone With the Wind. {isn't it funny that the days of reading a favorite book hold like picture stills in memory?} it is my mother's favorite book (and probably your mother's favorite as well) and after years of hearing her go on and on, i decided it was finally time for me to read it.

i borrowed her beloved dog-earred copy with it's worn cover, the hinge so cracked it flirts with a fatal rip. this venture began right after i was married. feeling like i finally understood what love is, i surmised i could surely understand Scarlett and her infamous love affair. though it took me months to read, i devoured it. during my commutes into salt lake city - riding on trax, during lunch breaks, & in my favorite position on our small sofa, curled up - i could be with Scarlett and live vicariously through her. i could attend the grand picnics on the lawns, feel the corsets being cinched, see the drastic changes of scenery, understand the newness of her responsibilies, feel the fury in her brow, hear the soldier's cries.. the book is thick with stories within a story. after months of reading, i felt i was growing up with Scarlett. i was understanding her deeper, since getting to know her so well. her relationships felt like my relationships, her happinesses became my pleasures.

authors are magicians to me. it's as if they can wave their words like wands to our imagination. the way their details for characters are enough for you to understand and clearly see, yet bendable for you to exert your own ideas. to relate someone in your personal life to a character in a book, brings life to that person. you see, there is really a Scarlett in all of us: she is beautiful and bold, sassy and spoiled, she is independent and spirited, polished and poised.

the magicians weave the world wherein these characters live. you yearn for home as much as Scarlett does. you can envision it and love it and know all the reasons in which she is so tied to it. an excellent author helps you view the environment, the details of a place so well, that everytime you open the page - you slip in - like someone on the set. perhaps if you were called upon to help, you would know precisely where it is in her house you could look to fetch the bucket to shine the windows with vinegar. i love books. i simply love to read and am grateful for the books wherein the journey is not a task.. but a joyous one. now back to my book.

to read is to believe.
to write is to have power.

4 comments:

Christie said...

I must know...what are you reading now?

marta said...

i love everything by anita shreve. right now, it's Fortune's Rocks. it takes place in the 1800s and is about a wealthy family who visits the beach every summer. it's a story about first loves, woman's rights, class prejudices, etc. it is rather slow moving, all engulfing, completely descriptive. i don't know if it's for everyone, but i highly recommend it. it makes me want to live in the 1800s and send telegraphs to my long lost love.

whit said...

Mart..when are you going to write a book yourself? I have yet to read gone with the wind..its one of my many goals in life..you should by the way read Pride and Prejudice..you will believe you are best friends with Elizabeth.

jamieanne said...

I remember my mom got us girls together a few years back, to go and see Gone With the Wind on the big screen at Jordan Commons. It was complete with intermission and everything. It made me fall in love with that movie...nothing quite like Scarlet O'Hara on the silver screen. Truly magical.
I know, I know, nobody thinks the movie is as good as the book. But I personally think that one is!

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