Reading a Good Book

Few books that I read will keep me up late at night half-worried about the alarm clock that will no doubt dig into my grudging slumber. Over the years, I have read many pages, some for entertainment, some to evoke emotion, but mainly, I read to take a vacation. This makes my favorite books the ones that are set in far countries or when the narrator is traveling from country to country and giving detailed account of their journey.

I was recently enraptured by "Honeymoon with my brother" by Franz Wisner which is one man's account of just letting go and traveling for a whole year with his brother to different countries. Needless to say, I spent many hours roaming the back hills of some very far away lands and hiking along with them. There were moments when I was zipping along some very major highways in a rental car seeing all the sights outlined on the pages.

A friend once asked me if when I read, do I get a mental picture of the story or do I hear the voices? I definitely see the story unfold. I am right there with Alice Steinbach as she travels without reservations to the fancy streets of Paris and with Elizabeth Gilbert as she eats, prays and loves while traveling Italy, India and Indonesia. I cry with my beloved characters, I laugh and love and live with them.

I take many vacations in just one day as I mentally sip wine in a French restaurant and eat vine-ripe tomatoes in an Italian pizzeria. As a child I spent many hours with Heidi in the Swiss Alps.I love these trips, they energize me. They take me to a different place, sometimes a different time. I love it when a book throws me into rapture because it me days to resurface and get back to life. I always look forward to the next book that will plunge me into my new vacation.