Treat ‘em like a friend

The bare white wall behind my stove has always bothered me.  Since it is Formica, I hesitate to hang anything that requires nails.  I’ve thought if I found the right thing, double sided tape would do the trick – but I’ve never found anything I thought was right… until today.

  

We were checking out all of the fun stuff on sale at Kohl's, knowing that I had my trusty little additional 15% off coupon.  Out of the blue we  happened on to a display of appliqués.  But we just didn’t see any the right size, or with the right quote.  Then it happened.  Jim rummaged towards the back of the display and found it.  Live Laugh Love.  My dictum.  Live Laugh and Love.  And I’m lovin’ it! (And yes, I have a thing for old salt and pepper shakers).

I have a friend with me at all times.  No matter where I go, this friend tags along.  Changing personalities and clothes quite often, this friend always entertains, sometime scares, amuses, educates, makes me laugh and cry. I’ll have to admit I occasionally don’t enjoy this friend’s company and do a little switcheroo.  But all in all – I love my friend.

My books are my friend.  As a child I was always admonished to take great care with my books.  Don’t lay them open – always use a bookmark.  Turning down a corner to mark where we had left off together was taboo. 

 

Somehow that just doesn’t seem right to me.  It didn’t then and it doesn’t now.  If I’m visiting with someone else’s friend, then I’m more cautious.  It doesn’t pay to get too familiar if it isn’t yours.  But with my own friends, I like to curl up and get comfy.  I like the wrinkles and creases and smudges that prove we’ve been enjoying ourselves together.

Some of my favorite authors are Diana Gabaldon,  Ken Follett, Jeffrey Archer, Maeve Binchy, and Nicholas Sparks.  There are many more but these readily come to mind. 

Recently I’ve found another favorite friend.  Vicki Lane.

I’ve been visiting her blog, Vicki Lane Mysteries, for a few months now.  It is always an interesting read.  Sometimes she has a lot to say, sometimes, just a photo and a sentence or two. 

Finally, my fascination got the best of me and I had to read her books.  I was so confident that I was going to enjoy them – I ordered the entire series, including the one coming out this Fall.  I’m such a smart lady! 

The setting for her stories are the Appalachian Mountains – a place of fascination.  As I read the stories, I can hear the music of Emmy Lou Harris singing the Appalachian Waltz.  I can see in my mind the beauty of the youth, and the weathered faces of the hill people – sometimes in honesty, and other times in deceit.  She gives glimpses into how things were and in some cases still are.  If you get a chance to read Vicki Lane’s book, jump at it.

I really do treat my books as a comfortable inanimate friend (although the books do have life to me).  Anyhow, I was soaking in my awesome claw foot tub, reading the first in the series of Viki Lane’s books, Art’s Blood, and came upon this passage.  The main character, Elizabeth Goodweather, was contemplating the facts of a murder…

“She stretched out a foot and turned the tarnished brass tap, letting a little more hot water into the tub.  A soak in the tub before bed was one of her greatest pleasures.  Usually she brought a book with her and read till the water became too cool or till she dozed off.  Occasionally her book would dip into the water as  her eyes  drifted shut, but she had made it a rule never to read borrowed books in the bathtub.  Once wet, a book was never quite the same.  It would eventually dry out, but always in a puffed-up, outsize version of its former self.”

I had to chuckle to be reading that passage as I was soaking in my tub, reading.

Do you like to read?  What is your favorite type of book?  Do you have a favorite author?  Do you treat your books with great respect or do you abuse them like I do, taking them for granted like an old friend?  I really want to know!