I've recently become an avid reader, and I've been averaging 1-2 books per week. There have been some good, some bad, some ugly. There have been some page turners, plot flops, and some words that just went plain over my head. I've come to love reading again, a past time that I had abandoned awhile back. When you find a great book, it reiterates the possibilities of life, the heartbreak of failure and it creates a new world for you. I found that book in Water for Elephants.Through 331 pages I was drawn in from the beginning. The basic plot is it's about a man who joined the circus during the depression, and all the strange and amazing things that transpired. I was so completely drawn in by the story, that I didn't want to put it down. At the end of the book, the author says that most of the oddities told in her story were actually taken from real events at other circuses.
I laughed, I cried, I told Nick that I would watch TV with him later. I didn't really neglect my child, he was completely content to play by himself while Mom read, promise. It went with me to work, to the backyard, and even the car, but the story will stay with me much longer than an hour read-a-thon in the bathroom stall at work.
Once in a blue moon, you come across a work that speaks to you. When I saw Amelie, and Finding Neverland in the theatre, they grabbed a piece of me. As I read White Oleander and Water for Elephants I was given a fresh outlook on life and a definite appreciation and disappointment for the normal life that I lead.
