The Beginning

Writing about MS all the time is becoming depressing. And since as a person with MS I am more inclined to become depressed (chemicals in the brain being all F-ed up and what not) I am going to avoid depressing things. So I have decided to write about something else. It wasn’t that difficult for me to think of another topic. What else is always running through my mind? Books. I love Books. They take you to a different place. You become totally immerged in someone else’s life that for a little while you can pretend it is yours. Not that I am trying to use escapism, which this is definitely a form of. I have been surrounded by books my entire life and honestly didn’t become an avid reader until college. I blame that on Anne Rice who started my obsession with Vampires and all things supernatural.  

It’s not just the stories though. It’s the books themselves. Yes I admit that I am a little picky about the books that I buy. I love hard cover. The only time I like soft cover is to bring to the beach. And if I read something in soft cover and love it, I will buy it in hard cover for my (sad attempt at a) library.

People have recently been trying to talk me into getting a Kindle, or some such device. I just can’t sanction it. Maybe to replace my soft cover books? But I love the way a book feels in my hands. I love to turn the pages. I love the way they smell, especially the older well read books. I know that sounds strange. But who else are you going to admit these things to then the people who read your blog?

Right now I am reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. It started out as a good book. I enjoyed the adventure in the beginning. I was really happy with the direction it was taking with Huck and Jim. But all the sudden they pick up these con artists who I hated. And I realize that we were supposed to hate them. But I swear I almost skipped chapters to get away from them. And then finally we did get rid of them and Tom Sawyer ends up in the mix. Which I have to say seemed like a literary stretch. Like Twain couldn’t think of a way to end the book so he threw in the most unlikely character. At first I was very happy with this development. I really liked Tom in his book. However in this book I hate him. He is acting like a spoiled rich kid who is just looking for adventure because he is bored. While poor Huck is actually trying to save his friends life. I have less than 30 pages left and it is a little torturous to finish. I just want to reach into the book and punch Tom and tell Huck to just save poor Jim and get back on their raft. I am hoping that that is what happens in the next couple of pages but I doubt it. And no, obviously I have never read this before. I am a little late coming to most of the classics. I am working on that though.  

So here starts my second topic. Feel free to chime in with your own comments about the books, or my interpretations. 🙂