reading in mexico

So today I will read. I finished my first novel already (The Help – highly recommend) and start looking for another book. I just can’t sit idle, I need something to do and there is nothing I would rather do than immerse myself in a great book that takes me away from the beauty and warmth that surrounds me. A dose of cruel reality is important in keeping fresh in one’s mind how wonderful it is to be where you are.

I take three possibilities to the pool’s edge. I get myself all settled in; towel the recliner, drag the little table within arm’s reach, where I stack the 3 books and my ice coffee, and then proceed to coat my body with 30 sun block. I arrange myself onto the lounger and am immediately pissed that it is just too hot to sit here. I need to pick all this up and start all over again on the other side of the pool where there is shade. So begins the exodus.

Finally, I sit my ass down, pick up the first potential and begin to read. I read for half an hour and am into the second chapter before I suddenly recognize a particular sentence, a profound sentence, which I remember stopping at the last time. This not remembering can actually be a benefit, as one can read and re-read all ones favorite books over and over again and not have to suffer through bad fiction that goes nowhere. Nevertheless, I put the book down and begin the second potential.

I am immediately taken in by the gripping description of a horrid car accident. It’s almost too descriptive. I find myself cringing and feel my face distorting and head shaking….but it is so well written I am compelled to continue reading. Then the book begins to do that back and forth thing, swinging from present time to past tense, which I hate, but the past tense is at least a break from the current state the poor bastard finds himself in, and it is also compelling, so I read on.

Finally, we are back to prevailing times and we are in a burn unit of a hospital undergoing debridement, (the cutting off of dead skin from a burn victim). His description of the pain is so unbearable to read, that I actually feel my stomach rise into the back of my throat and I heave the book into the pool where it floats before sinking.

I pick up potential number three; a story of two best friends, who survive betrayal, disloyalty and pain, to go on loving each other forever -Sounds like fiction to me and the perfect read to escape reality when it’s just too good to believe! Within the first fifty pages, I read the words, “will you be my best friend” “I will always be your best friend”, “promise we will always be best friends” enough times that the words….NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER …no longer hold any value for me.

I get the pool net, scoop out potential number two and resume reading about what it means to survive an inferno while I bake in the sun for added effect.