good book.

Well, I hesitantly started The Hunger Games earlier this week. Many had recommended the book to me, but I didn't love the sound of the 1984-esque book, especially not without Pamela Moore's interpretation by my side.

(that's a reference to my practically divine dual-enrollment senior English "professor," folks).

But I'm on holiday, and everyone else is doing it, so... I embarked on the book-of-the-moment as my "trendy read" of the break. The first chapter and a half, I was just 'meh...' The latter half of chapter two and chapter three were more of a 'hmmm...' and now, I'm in. So in, in fact, that I'm dreaming about participating in the Hunger Games. And that's no sweet dream.

That's the mark of a good book if you ask me: when you're so drawn into the characters and the plot that they start to penetrate your real life.

While I was reading Gone with the Wind, any "bump in the night" was a Union soldier trying to take the last of our meager rations. The second time I read the Harry Potter series, I sobbed when a beloved character fell to his death-- yes, sobbed on the elliptical machine in the apartment complex gym; I made quite a splash. Sense and Sensibility had me thinking in an English accent; occasionally, it had me speaking in an English accent that sounded much better in my head. My favorite book as a child, Jacob Have I Loved, transported me to my grandparents' house on Smith Lake every time I cracked open the novel. When I read Redeeming Love in college, my heart bled for Angel, hating her and hurting for her all at once. Books about royalty-- Henry the VIII, Marie Antoinette, and even Zeus and his crowd-- make it that much easier to be drawn into because it's a world every little girl wants to walk into (albeit, you soon find out those stories don't have a happy ending-- see Marie Antoinette for details). And I can't forget Bridge to Terabithia, which was read to me in third grade. Each day, a little passage after break. My thoughts raced, conflicted between listening and trying to determine where my own Terabithia lie.

Wow. Nerd Alert! But honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way. If these parallel worlds that offer a moment of respite in a busy, all-too-real world make me a Nerd, I'll wear that as a badge of honor. I'll also leave you with a lovely quote from Robert Pattinson, star of another phenomenon, Twilight.*

*You'll notice that RP's book series, authored by Stephanie Meyer, didn't make my list. That wasn't an accident... but his quote is still dead on.

"If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are. Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads."


** The thing about Internet quotes is...  you can't guarantee the accuracy. Whether or not this is the REAL R Pattz, it's still good.