i really love books.

i love shopping for books. i love to go into barnes and noble 2 blocks away from my apartment and get lost in the fiction section, looking for familiar authors or titles that just pop out at me. i love pulling out the book that's at the very back, so you know it's brand new, and when you crack the spine for the first time and flip through the smooth unblemished pages you feel like the story was written just for you.

for my 21st birthday my beautiful sister gave me the most exquisite set of Frank L. Baum's original Oz stories. 3 volumes, bound in green leather with gold around the edge of the pages, and amazing illustrations. sad to say, 2 and a half years later, they remain on my bookshelf at my parent's house, unread.

now don't get me wrong, it's not like i didn't want to read them. i did! but books as gorgeous as these deserve a whole weekend on the couch with a furry blanket and endless cups of tea. phone turned off, lamp turned on, and the outside world tuned out, so i could get lost in Oz. however, in my 21st year, this dream weekend was far from possible. i was working full time, dealing with my first real relationship, which ultimately led to my first real heartbreak, doing back to back shows, auditioning for musical theatre colleges in different countries and planning my best friend's wedding. Mr Baum would have to wait.

but then of course within the year i was on my way to new york for school, and being terrified of the state of the dorms i was about to live in, i decided my precious volumes were best left at home. and there they remained. although i did just send my mother an email asking her to send them to me, and i promise, emma, they will be well looked after - as she told me on my birthday, these books have heirloom potential! if i have kids... being blessed with a chronic and irrational fear of doctors and hospitals, the idea of having another human being forcibly removed from my body does not appeal, so maybe they'll become heirlooms for whatever nieces and nephews i have. or maybe i'll be like angelina jolie and adopt half a country. and then my favorite kid can have the books.

i go on and on about how much i love books...although i have failed the basic 'Classics' test. i faked my way through The Hobbit in high school. I attempted to read the Lord Of The Rings trilogy, but made the mistake of seeing the movies first, so they were far too long and irritating. i read the da vinci code but could not keep interested in angels and demons.
i have never read a jane austen book...
let the beating begin!

i have however repeatedly read all the harry potters, all jodi picoult, lauren weisberger and nick hornby... and i go back to them again and again, and probably always will!

i'm about to dive into my second readings of The Lovely Bones, White Oleander, and my first reading of The Power Of One.
wish me luck,
hope you're all curled up somewhere with a good book.
xx