Have Library Card, Will Travel

So, I’m in situation that I’m sure many individuals can relate to.    While I would LOVE to spend my summer reclining in the sun, with a cool, frosty beverage in my hand, a warm wave slipping up to rinse the sand from between my toes, it’s just not in the foreseeable future.    It appears that someone lost the necessary paperwork on my trustfund, and well... (sigh...)This makes me a bit sad, but, as I’m not destined for faraway climes anytime soon, I’ve decided to make the best of it by curling up my pasty-white self into a corner of the couch (or stretching on a deck chair- life’s really not that bad J ) and diving headfirst into a plethora of promising looking tomes that I’ve heard of, read about, or inadvertently discovered.  

Truth to tell, my journeys have been pretty exciting;  So far this summer, I’ve been to Mississippi, France, Bavaria, New York and quite a few other uncharted regions!  Now, that being said, some of those journeys that I’ve taken haven’t ended up how I would have picked, and there were a few that had me downright irate…when you travel by book, you have to travel by the book, if you catch my meaning.  You can’t alter an ending just because it displeases you; you can’t change an outcome to save a beloved character (even if you see their fate descending on their heads like the snapped string of the sword of Damocles), and no matter how hard you slam a book shut and then proceed to rant, rave, and lose sleep over a rotten ending, you must accept the simple fact that the book doesn’t care.  

 This can be a hard truth to face, especially when we invest our time (and sometimes our emotions, if the author’s gifted) in pouring ourselves into a story, grow attached to the characters (some of them, anyway), who, either in spite (or because) of their flaws and foibles still manage to speak to us and draw us in.   It can be a bit of any unrequited love, you could say; or maybe a single sided infatuation.  Even if we invest ourselves in a promising book, we can still end up being betrayed, enraged, outraged or just feeling downright gypped. 

 Luckily, this is not always the case!  In fact, more often than not, we as the readers end up awash in a sea of tranquility that stretches around us as a story takes hold.  A great author can navigate us through the ebbs and swells that batter our vessels, steering through the salty depths of an experience by the guidance of universal truths that speak out as constellations to sailors amidst a black night.  When you are lucky enough to journey into a book like that, my friend, don’t let it get away.  Keep it, buy it, shelve, save it; and when necessary, take that trip again when your life needs a respite.

What books steer you true?   What speaks to you, guides you, refreshes you?  What have you found that, unlooked for, makes you laugh while reading in the doctor’s office, or cry on the subway, or cuss at the culmination?  In addition to those that can guide us, I feel (and some may disagree) that any book that slips off the page and pulls a human emotion from the depths of your heart is a book worth having read.

Happy travels!