For You Bookworms

When I run into other people who love books the way I do, it's like finding a literary soul mate. A while back, I went to an acquaintance's home for the first time and almost cried when I stepped into her living room. It was as if I had come home to the Mothership. Let me describe her living room to you and if you're "one of us", you'll know exactly what I'm talking about: First thing I noticed was this big, beautiful, fireplace with two huge cushy leather reading chairs pulled in front. This was around Halloween, so she had an assortment of green and white gourds arranged in the grate. Very cool. Then there were tons of old photographs of family members and ancestors lines up on the mantle in honor of Day of the Dead. Even cooler. Beside the chairs was a set of glass french doors, which led out to a candle-lit courtyard. The room itself was lit with small-ish reading lamps set on trunks (that were being utilized as various-sized tables). And best of all, the sage green walls were lined with shelves and shelves and shelves of nothing but books. Books, books, everywhere. Sometimes there was an arsty little doo-dad of some sort or another to break up the continuity of the shelves, but mostly there were books. And there was a cool cd playing too, if I remember right. Pink Martini? It totally set the mood.

What I'd give for a cool little room like that! If she rented it out by the hour to readers like me, I would've gladly forked over an undisclosed amount of cash to just curl up in one of those chairs and forget about the world around me. And if you're a crazy bookworm like me, you would've too.

But I digress.

My point is, I'm a reader. And I think tonight I'd like to share with you something very personal, very special, very dear to my heart. It's my top 10 list of fav books. Take this, my friends, and treat it lovingly. Know that this is a high honor I am bestowing on you tonight.

(Can you tell that my love of reading also gives me a flair for the dramatic? I'm like the Ethel Merman of the Library of Congress)

Anyway. Here they are, in no particular order:

10. Memoirs of a Geisha, by Arthur Golden- Read it in college, wrote a paper on it, and probably could've written another 5. Was completely drawn into it's exotic theme and loved learning and thinking about women's place in WWII era Japan.

9. Rebecca, by Daphne Du Maurier- Just plain old romantic and spooky. Love the movie too.

8. Operating Instrutions: A Journal of My Son's First Year, by Anne Lamott- I read this long before I even had kids and it touched me. It started my love for anything written by Anne Lamott. She's so honest and funny that it kills me. I have fantasies of us being BFF's and going out for a drink and talking and laughing and being oh so witty. (A fantasy that's ruined when I remember that she writes candidly about being a recovering alcoholic. So I guess there goes that. I still love her, though.)

7. Traveling Mercies, Anne Lamott- Let me keep extolling the wonderfulness that is Anne Lamott. Here's a quote from her book: "You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image when He hates all the same people you do."

Never mind. There's no one quote. Just go read her and find out for yourself.

6. The Betsy-Tacy Series by Maud Hart Lovelace- The day I saw these books sitting on the shelf in the Buena Vista Library's Childrens Reading Room is a day seared into my memory. I can tell you how it smelled in there, what the weather was like outside, and what I had eaten for lunch prior. Someone actually wrote a character with my weird oddball name into not just one book, but EIGHT books! That alone was enough for me to love them, but it turns out they're charming and sweet too.

5. The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger- Such a good read, but too complicated to explain. Just trust me and read it. It's good.

4. Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak- Because when I read the opening lines "The night that Max made mischief of one kind and another..." I get goosebumps. Everytime.

3. The Paper Bag Princess, by Robert Munsch- I want Princess G to have a fairy tale book in her collection where a Princess calls out a Prince on his bad behavior. This is that book.

2. Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, by Judy Blume- It's a classic. "We must! We must! We must increase our bust!" Not that I ever actually tried that. Uh, ya. Right.

1. The Red Tent, by Anita Diamant. It's a bible story, told from a minor woman character's perspective. Cool enough at that. But then, there's also that the story is so powerful and moving that I almost cry every time I finish it. My alltime fav.

So there it is. Man, this is a long post. Sorry bout that. Someday when I redo the look of my blog, I'm going to put a "What I'm Reading Now" widget in my sidebar. Then maybe I'll do a weekly something or other on my current book. I don't know. I just know that I love this blog, and I love books, and if I found a way to combine the two then all would be right in the cosmos.

You all have a good night!