Fantasy Revisited

You know, there just isn't much better for me than getting into a book. Like really getting into a book. Getting into a book to me is different (I think) than most people getting into a book. People who weren't bookworms anyway.

Not that I have any more depth than anyone else. On the contrary - though I gave the "classics" their cursory reads when I was in high school - devouring all things literary - I didn't particularly get into them. I don't like books for how they make me think or issues they make me think about or emotional duress they make me confront. I really only like books that envelop me.

And when I say I like them... I mean I re-read them. More than any of you think possible, I re-read them. Each has a specific scene or arc that, when I'm in the mood for it, I need to re-experience. Sometimes, if it's been enough time for me to be different enough to experience the whole book again I re-read the whole thing - falling in love again.

I know I've mentioned what a huge deal the Harry Potter series was for me. It re-awakened this side of myself that I hadn't realized I'd missed. This obsession side, the book me.

The problem isn't the lack of books out there - nor the lack of good books - its the lack of ME books. I honestly do enjoy almost any mystery novel... if I have some sort of extended time to just sit and read. I get into it... enough. But for the real real thing - that is much more difficult to find.

Is Twilight the real thing? No, not really. But it's close. Don't all go out and read it - it's juvenile... but if you happen to be me, who can be so obsessed with something that I love that can skim over the juvenile-ness... who can ignore the repetitive description, forgive the immature youthful perspective, re-write the hero just slightly in my head, revise it to be the real thing... oooooOh... it's good enough. But please don't come back to me and tell me how awful it is - trust me - there is a reason the movie (which promises to be better than the book) is targeted to 15 year olds. There is a reason I would have to discuss character development with Abby before I would let her read it.


It's not Harry - which is why it drives me crazy when people dismiss Harry as a children's book. Maybe I should be just reading children's literature if Harry is considered as juvenile as Twilight. So...right - Harry is real... Twilight is real- but only the way I see it in my head... and it scratches an innocent itch - a revisionist itch and despite the fact that I have enough against it to write an essay - it's making me very happy. It reminds me how this side of myself gives me such energy and such fun.

It's that same side of me that wants to dance around when I take a REALLY good picture - or paint a REALLY good watercolor... victory is the word that comes to mind. Odd.