January 23, 2022 ~ Sunday early evening (cold/gray/foggy in the NW)
It’s one of those days when I felt like doing nothing. And that’s pretty much what I did! Mission accomplished!
I just took granola out of the oven – first attempt at homemade (so damn easy/and so good)! It smells like a bakery in here. Yum.
Annie was giving me the ol’ puppy eyeballs earlier and so we went out for a walk. We just went down to the corner and back … half a mile or so … and got at least some steps in for me/some sniffs in for her. I was pretty sure I froze my butt off … but, nope, got home and there is was still – right behind me. Darn it anyway! My fingers, however, were lost along the way and I arrived home with icicles in their place. I don’t do well with cold. I never really did but after nearly 8 years here … I’ve turned into a NW Wimp!
It’s been another week of too much news … too much angst and disappointment. So, I did what I like to do to get away from reality – I read. I’m a cozy reader. Not that I’m cozy – which I usually am – but that is what the books I read are characterized as … “a cozy read”. Light/easy/fluff. And who doesn’t like a good fluff read now and then?
I read a variety of genres but mostly biographies, historical fiction, and mysteries. And those mysteries are usually (light) murder mysteries … nothing gross or gory. I like the books with a female lead (usually) who owns her own business (scrapbook, candy, tea, antique or book store, beauty salon or doggy daycare) and said heroine is exceptionally gifted in the art of sleuthing. The murders usually have to do with a n’er do well who ended up in a swamp, down a well, poisoned, or stuffed into the wall of an old house. Think Colonel Mustard in the drawing room with a candlestick type of murder. No blood. No guts. No evil. Just a dead body mentioned once or twice. I especially like when the books are visual and descriptive and when they take place in the South … all that dripping Spanish moss and those high society parties!
Nothing can take me away from the political/Covid/weather/trials of daily life than steeping myself in a good book.
It sounds silly but I ration my reading. When I let myself read (because once that book is opened, I kind of forego EVERYTHING else) … I’m like an addict. Food? Sure, if I have to – maybe I’ll gnaw on a raw potato while turning the next page. Water? Only if I have to and I’ll take a sip from the faucet while washing my hands. Dogs? They’re on their own! LOL. Well, I’m not that bad … but have been known to tell myself as I crawl into bed at 11pm that I’m just going to read ONE CHAPTER or for half an hour … and then it’s going on 2am and I’m still reading.
Friday night was such a night. After four nights of reading – I decided I’d just take the evening and finish off the book. One needs to know something first – I am a SLOW reader. As in a turtle could read faster than me, if a turtle could read. I think about the words … was that the best descriptor? Could that visual have been better stated/more in-depth? I re-read a paragraph if it’s especially lovely. So, yeah … slow!
Anyway … there I was cuddled in on the couch and 4 hours in and nearing the end of the book at 1:30 am. I was really tired but I wanted to finish it off. I wanted to know if I had figured it out and to get the author to wrap it all up. I finished a chapter – thinking I had about 20 pages to go and … NOPE! It had ended. The rest of the pages were a preview of another book! What the … NOOOOO! So, there I was at the end of the book but NOT at the end of the story! The author had bailed … making whomever read this book, read the next in the series. Darn it anyway!
Call me crazy, but after five nights of reading and trying to figure out “who done it” … I want the last chapter of the book to finish it all up/divulge the killer and motive/and wrap it up and deliver it all to me with a bow on it. I don’t want to have to wait FOR THE NEXT BOOK!
But, here I am. Waiting. I went online and checked the publication date and, luckily for me, said book was printed in 2014 … and the next book in the series was published a year later (and 12 more since! A prolific writer!). So, unlike the readers of that book when it first came out, I only have to wait a week or so to get the next one from my library … I don’t have to wait a year or longer like they did!
In any case … I’ll start some other book tonight. But, I’m not going to stay up until 2am reading. And, when I come to the end of it, days from now, I hope the book ends with the author wrapping things up and putting a bow on it!