Reading for me is essential to having a brain. I taught myself to read when I was 4, and haven’t stopped. I read cereal boxes when Mom wouldn’t let me have books at the table.
And hoo! I used to be a total Reader of the Smart Books. Dostoevsky. Shakespeare. Moliere. Alexandre Dumas and I were totally homies, back in the day. I do still read these, although probably not with the frequency I did when I was being graded on my knowledge of them. They fall open to familiar pages, underlined passages (yeah, I did that too – although most of these are underlined because again – notoriously cheap- I bought used books) and I read for a few minutes and then I’m inevitably called to do something else so I put them back on the shelf.
Even when I was in university though, I needed what I term “brain candy” books to help me relax at the end of the day. The Idiot is fine morning reading, but when you’re trying to wind down and sleep? Not really. I think I’ve blogged before how I had one book – I think it was a Harlequin Historical, something like that- about this girl marrying this guy she didn’t know to get away from her abusive stepfather, then he moved her to the Outer Banks and left, and somehow they ended up falling in love after seeing each other three times. I read that book every night before bed for an entire semester during university. It was simple, it was romantic (and believe me, when you are at a university where there is a 6:1 ratio of girls to guys, you certainly need to take romance where you can get it), there were silly parts; it was alright. I probably had it memorized – even now I can call up specific passages in my mind, and with my terrible memory, that’s saying something.
So lately, my ‘brain candy’ has been the Southern Vampire series of books by Charlaine Harris. These are the books that the TV show True Blood is based on; there are 8 in the series so far and they have all been really good. Nothing super-scary, but so, so good. Oh, and there’s sex all up in there. And telepaths. And, eventually, fairies.
Okay now I’ve made these books sound insane. But they’re good. I promise.
Now you; what are your “brain candy” books? Are there any that you can read over and over again? Please tell me, because I’m nearing the end of Book 8 and I bet Ms. Harris is going to take another 2 years to write the next in the series.
