Now I Remember

I've been in a little bit of a reading slump lately. I blogged a few weeks back that I was planning on getting back to reading again, and I asked for some book suggestions. I picked up a few books from my night table, started a few, but then got too busy and distracted to actually finish anything.

But since I'm taking a break this week, I picked up my Kindle yesterday and started looking through the bunches of books I've downloaded and never actually followed through with reading or finishing. I had Every Last One by Anna Quindlen on there, and it was a book I downloaded before a trip last spring but never actually got a chance to even start. In fact, I'd forgotten it was there.

Anna Quindlen is one of my all time favorite authors. When I read Black and Blue years ago, it was the kind of book that reaffirmed my desire to be a writer. In my opinion it has one of the best first chapters of any book I've ever read.

I spent most of the day yesterday engrossed in her latest. I stayed up past midnight, reading until my eyes were tired and bleary. Then I was so involved with the main character and her ensemble of friends and family that I woke up this morning mulling them over as if they were actual people in my life. When I hit the point of the book where tragedy struck, I felt it deeply, as if it were real. I am almost finished with the book and I almost don't want it to end.

This is a feeling that I used to feel quite often when I read a book. This is why I love to read. So thank you, Anna Quindlen, for bringing me out of my reading slump!

What books have brought you out of a reading slump or reminded you why you love to read?