A great escape

I am moody. Sometimes I'm in the mood to read books, and sometimes in the mood to not read and just be entertained by television or something other than books. I love reading, and I read something every day, but sometimes books are just too demanding. I have time to read a newspaper, but when my life is so busy, to commit to a book takes some doing. I always have a pile of books by the bed, though, and there have been times when I've had three books going. I love escaping into a book for a while. It feels like I've traveled to some distant land, or even back in time. Books are a great escape for me.

Right now I'm in a reading mood, which means I'll probably blaze through a bunch of books within a few months.

I just updated my list on this blog because I finished "State of Wonder" quite some time ago. It was a great book, BTW. It had me thinking for at least a week after I finished it, and that is the sign of a good book for me. In fact, I thought of it yesterday.

In the book there is a group of women in the Amazon who continue to have children into later years, and a scientist is there studying this, and some other things. I thought of it out of the blue yesterday because I realized how difficult it would be for us to have children into our 60s and 70s and beyond. Our bones can become brittle. Carrying a baby would be such a strain on our bodies, not to mention a delivery. (It was a great book.)

Before I had even finished that book I was aware that I would want to be reading another one right away. I love the library, but I am terrible at getting books read before they are due. Plus I just always forget when they're due and I'm not good at keeping that little slip of paper that tells me when they're due. I've never in all these years come up with a good system for keeping track of library books.

So instead I went to the thrift store. I knew those books would be older ones, but like I said, I get in moods and out of moods. There are a million books out there that were popular within the past few years that I never got to read because I didn't have time, number one, and secondly, I wasn't in the mood.

I got a bag full of books for about $6. Yes. $6. Amazing. I'm reading a little paperback book right now called "To the Wedding," by John Berger. The writing style is totally different from any other books I've read. I usually read it late at night, and maybe that is why it has been a little confusing to me. It feels like it jumps from one voice to another and I have to take a moment to figure out who is speaking.

I've read so many good books. There are a few that I want to re-read they were so good.
Some of my favorites that come to mind, and these are just a few:

The Dao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff
The Devil in the White City--soooo good. by Erik Larson
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo series by Stieg Larsson
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
On Death and Dying by Elizabeth Kubler Ross
There are so many more. What are your favorite books? Do you have a reading list this summer?