For the Love of Books

Every summer, at least once per summer, I devote an entire day to reading. I choose a book of reasonable length and watch the forecast for a sunny day and plan accordingly to read an entire book. At the end of such a day the book lover in me gets to add another title to my list of “Books Read Summer 200X” and my inner sunbather (as my sister Liz would say) is happy to have advanced another shade in the tan spectrum. For me, life doesn’t get much better than that—especially if adult beverages join the pool party midday.

Similarly, in the winter I might choose to spend an entire snow day with soup on the stove and a book in hand. We didn’t get many snow days this past winter, however, so I began my February vacation with a reading day. I don’t remember how the soup came out, but I remember that I devoured Lost and Found, by Carolyn Parkhurst and it was just delicious.

As the photos in my last post indicate, I spent April vacation in San Diego and had a wonderful time. (I promise, Jill, I will write about it…) In between mimosas and fish tacos and an afternoon in La Jolla and margaritas and belly laughs and a day in Manhattan Beach to visit with family I didn’t read a single word, because I’m sure browsing through the SkyMall catalog doesn’t count. Today, although not rainy as predicted, I intend to make up for it.

But honestly, if all I had done over vacation was read, I would still make today a reading day because Elinor Lipman’s new book was released yesterday. Oh, Happy Day! As I was leaving school I got an email reminder that The Family Man was available in bookstores so I drove directly from school to Barnes and Noble to pick up my copy. As I have mentioned in previous posts, she is my favorite author and was my writing teacher at “Writer’s Camp,” so even if it hadn't gotten a great review in Publisher’s Weekly, I would have purchased it on day one and planned to read it in a single sitting. And so I am off, for the tenth time in my adult life, to be delighted by her wit and fall in love with her cast of characters.

Only this time, after finishing and sighing a contented sigh when I put the book on my Ellie shelf, I hope to walk directly to my keyboard.