One of the things I’ve missed a lot in the last few months – other than my life – is having a chance to read.
As an NF (in Myers-Briggs lingo) I am not a big here-and-now person. My S function is pretty elementary. I take refuge in unreality (some say, fiction) a lot of the time. Or I did. But since my mother’s illness and subsequent decline and all the attendant requirements, I haven’t seen much in the way of fiction.
Last week, however, after her latest move to the nursing facility that actually seems able to care for her, I’ve had a bit more time. And the first thing I did was buy books. Fiction.
And I’ve 
been sneaking in time to read. What a treat.
Of course so far I’ve had two good books – or one and a half, because I’m only halfway through the second. But I can’t tell you how refreshed I feel.
The first I read was Julia Quinn’s latest, Ten Things I Love About You. It was everything that I ask from Julia’s books – it was fun, it was flirty, it had engaging characters whom I so enjoyed spending time with. It was wonderful escapism, and I adored it.
Now I’ve moved on to Lisa Kleypas’s Married By Morning. It is, I realize now, the fourth or fifth book about the Hathaway family. I haven’t read any of the others. It doesn’t matter. I don’t care. I will probably go back and read them eventually because I enjoy this family. But it was lovely to meet Leo and Catherine without knowing any of their history, without realizing until Leo did that Catherine was Harry’s sister, without knowing much of Leo’s painful past. I was a complete newcomer – and I am enchanted. I am refreshed.
I have Tessa Dare’s One Dance With A Duke on my nightstand. I daresay I’ll get to it later this week. I spend a couple of hours at my mother’s bedside every day, and when she’s sleeping, I read.
I also have a manuscript copy of Anne Gracie’s The Accidental Wedding on my computer. I read that in the evenings. What a wonderful story. I can hardly wait to see it in book form coming autumn (or spring if you, like Ms Gracie, are a Down Under person).
It’s such a wonderful thing to be able to find great stories about memorable people and escape into them.
Did I mention that I love reading?
