After a long time, many years, in fact, I indulged in one of my favorite past times. I spent two hours browsing in a bookstore. I love the smell of new books. I am transported to another world of words and fantasy. I am like a hungry waif at a banquet table. Overwhelmed by the sheer amount in front of my devouring eyes, I start nibbling from one corner and lose all sense of time.
In this internet era with the world at your fingertips, reading from books seems to be a dying art. I have never tried reading an e-book. I don’t think it can compare to the joy of cuddling up with a real book in your hand. Encyclopedia Britannica has stopped their printed versions after almost 200 years of publishing.
In my childhood Enid Blyton, Nancy Drew, and Hardy boys were the in-things and that’s just 20-25 years ago. I believe its J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter that introduced the current generation to reading. I had just finished high school in 1999 when the prisoner of Azkaban was released with huge publicity. I was mesmerized by the series and read them with fervor from then on to the very last one released in 2007. Each book was more fascinating than the last. I think I outgrew them when I started on the Twilight series from Stephanie Meyers. Breaking Dawn is just awesome. I don’t know how many times I have read it, over and over again.
You guessed it, I love fantasy fiction. The Belgariad series by David Eddings was actually the first fantasy series I fell in love with and that was back in 1995. The Inheritance Cycle of books made popular by book one Eragon, by Christopher Paolini also keeps you spellbound. Today I bought the fourth book in these series named Inheritance. Once I start reading, I am deaf, dumb and mute, lost to the world. I finish it with one big gulp.
Julie Joy 