I need some space.
Before I’m ready.
It’s like that with great loves.
This one has been with me for years.
I suspect with you, as well.
A love that can only be found between the pages. Of books. Reading.
Diving into the deep end with characters I like and relate to better than some of the “real” people in my life.
My name is Daryn and I’m a lifelong book lover.
You, too, Dear Reader? Are you a fellow Reader?
And if so, what kind?
Book love is sort of like dating. How we look for it, enjoy it, pace it.
Are you a serial reader? The kind who jumps from book to book? Your soul starts to shake if you’re not involved in some master plot?
Do you refuse any exclusive relationship, reading more than one book at once?
Me, I’m a one-book-at-a-time kinda gal.
And I need a little space between tomes. After all, reading a book is so gosh darn intimate. For days, weeks, months, these characters and I grab every spare moment together. I will read in bed, in the bathroom while blow drying my hair (and you thought I didn’t have talent!)
And if the book is really good, like the one I just finished, I fall in love.
This is not the wisest of choices, as I know how this is going to end. Just as all unrequited love does: not well.
For, to love a book is to give your heart away, to the characters, to their struggles.
Meanwhile, they don’t know who I am. The idea that they’re now sharing their story with the next book-aholic eager to gobble up their pages hurts my warped feelings a bit, I must say.
That’s why, like dating, I can’t jump immediately from one book to another.
So, yes, that makes this a lonely time, as I’m currently between books.
I crawl into bed thinking of that book I forgot I finished, only to remember, “Oh, that’s right. We’re not together anymore.”
My heart pangs, just not enough to move along. Not quite yet.
Sometime over the next week or two, I’ll start thinking about dipping my page-turning finger.
Like someone ready to get back in the dating pool, I’ll casually ask friends, “Know any good books?”
Or look for an online match asking on Twitter and Facebook, “What book have you loved lately?”
A good fix-up requires some information, so let me just say, I don’t have a certain type.
I bounce from what the book world likes to call, “Women’s Fiction,” to thrillers, and if I’m feeling kinda smart, some literary stuff.
I’ve been known to spend my fair share of time with the likes of John Grisham, Dan Silva, Lisa Scottoline, Kristin Harmel, Harlan Coben, Ken Follett, and most recently Liane Moriarty.
How about you? Who you reading? How you reading?
I've got time to talk before the next book steals my time and heart. Talk books with me at Daryn@DarynKagan.com.
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