Making memories one day at a time.......and then I write about it.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Cancelled Adventure


Photo Credit

The Native's are all tucked all snuggly safe and sound in their beds. It is that time of night when the house is all quiet, I'm in my comfy jammies, the lamp next to my bed gives off a warm glow in my bedroom, a sweet smelling breeze after a day of rain comes through my open bedroom window. I am content and ready to be whisked away as I snuggle down between the sheets and open my new book.

I've been anticipating this moment ever since I bought the book on recommendation. An Oprah book of the month selection. Normally, I don't buy into or care what Oprah's book of the month is but this book was highly recommended and I was told that it was Oprah's favorite book out of all the books she's ever read. It must be good.

As I open the first pages and smell the newness of the book and feel the cover protest at being opened I smile to myself and blame my mother and her mother for this habit of staying up late losing myself between the pages of a book. My mind wanders to an upstairs bedroom of a farm house in Montana where a little girl presses herself against her window trying to see the words on the page by the scant light from the yard light in the driveway. Many times her mother would tell her that she was going to ruin her eyes straining them so.

Often, when the little girl would get up in the night to go to the bathroom she would see a soft light on in her mother's room, her mother propped up against pillows, lost between the pages of a book...... and her mother before her......

I return back to the words typed on the clean pages of this juicy fat book and am ready to go on an adventure. Where ever the book will take me. I've surrendered myself to it's pages.

I begin to read. Anticipation. The first page starts to give me an itinerary of where we are going. The second page, a view that is ugly. Can it be over looked? Maybe just a pit stop that I can ignore getting to the destination. The third page, the realization of what the entire trip is going to be. Ugly. Offensive. Repulsive. Vulgar. Vile.

I close the book and place it on the night stand next to my bed. Disappointment washes over me. I am angry. Brilliant this book is not.

My sister wrote a blog post the other day that is, in fact, brilliant. She said it far better than I ever could. Click here to read.

Thankfully, there are many adventures left to go on. As my brother in law tells his kids, "You don't have to lay in the gutter to appreciate the sidewalk."

I've shelves upon shelves full of books just waiting for me to crack open their covers and lose myself between their brilliant pages safe and far from the gutter.

15 comments:

  1. You know you're going to have to share the title. Just spill it already!
    I just got "The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo" from the library. It's all over the Internet, as a most wonderful book. I read the first 5 or 6 pages, and it was DULL...I decided to skip ahead and see if anything interesting happened later on. I flipped to a graphic, disgusting scene, and I was through. The book went back to the library promptly! Better luck next time!

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  2. Korrie, I hate that! Thanks for the heads up. I too had heard rave reviews over that book and was going to read it. Does no one know what a truly good read is anymore?

    The book is, "Freedom" by Jonathan Franzen

    Total bleck!

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  3. I hate when I'm just getting into a great book - wonderful plot, personable characters... and then the author throws in something unnecessary to spice things up or appeal to the trashy crowd. WHY do they do that? Stupid.

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  4. i love that picture at beginning of post. preeeety.

    great post, and your sisters was fabulous as well.

    exactly what i have been focusing on lately.

    kiss kiss!

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  5. Thanks for sharing your sister's post! It's amazing how we (the world) think we can handle more garbage as we "mature".

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  6. To the daughter who loves to read

    "RIGHT ON

    "much love from the mother who loves to read (and probably from her mother looking down from above).

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  7. Grave disappointment when books turn out badly. I think especially, as Gerb says, when you've invested enough in a book that you've relaxed, feeling like you're sitting at the feet of a storyteller you can really "get." You've made friends. And then they turn out to be people who, right in the middle of a lovely visit, tell a vile joke, and let go with a string of nasty language, or kick a dog or something. It's a shock and a betrayal.

    but in your case, I don't think you've ever thought of Oprah as your BFF, and I think we all realize that she's more into the PC coolness of things than she is into what we're looking for. So we're not hanging with her anymore. But we'll still be nice, and take her soup if she's sick.

    The problem is, most of the people who are being published now are picked for their "edge" and their "passion." And neither of those things actually require much brain - and very little heart. So I go back to my own shelves for something better. NExt time you are left thirsting, call me. I lend - but only to a select few . . .

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  8. I HATE when that happens and it happens a lot. I've tried a couple of her picks and had that same problem. However, there are two of her picks that I actually quite enjoyed. It's a hit or miss. Where's the site that can give you an indication of the books contents? Like the moving rating system.

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  9. I so agree with you! Life is too short to read books that aren't anything but the best and purest of imaginations. :) I've never read a raunchy book... never will!

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  10. It is so distressing to me when that happens! I just want to read great books and make friends with interesting characters, and the foulness is so . . . I don't know . . . so foul.

    I have returned countless books to the library unread, and I've become so afraid of trying new books!

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  11. Wondrful post, Rachel. I couldn't agree more. I loved your beginning...I was that little girl once upon a time. What a great thing to pass down to a child, though.

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  12. I have decided that in the world's standards I am never going to grow up and have realized that I really do enjoy reading books on the level of my young kids. The romance is fun, the adventure clean, the language is simple, and when I am done I can put the book down and have a clean mind free of nightmares.

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  13. I hate when I am excited to start a book and then it doesn't pan out. But worse than that is when it happens when I am on vacation and it is one of a very few number to pick from!
    So what IS the title?

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  14. I hate when I am excited to start a book and then it doesn't pan out. But worse than that is when it happens when I am on vacation and it is one of a very few number to pick from!
    So what IS the title?

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  15. Gerb, Bleck is right! Very disappointing.

    Misty, I thought my sis said it so well! Glad you did too.

    Chastina, I think being mature is having the sense/strength to walk out of a move, put a book down, or change a station, etc.

    Mom, I love you! Thanks for opening the world of reading to me and for encouraging me through your example and the hours you read aloud to me.

    Kristen, No, no investment in Oprah. Just the book which I took back. As you said, it's like inviting a friend in and then having them turn foul and sour on you. You can't get them out of your house fast enough! Such a let down.

    Lyndee, There is no site. I've looked. I've tried to read a couple on her book list in the past and have returned them all. I should have known this one would be a dud as well. Live and learn I guess.

    Corine, Good for you! Good for you for keeping your mind pure. I mean that sincerely.

    Jody, I found another book. :D And curled up in bed and read it.

    Anaise, I know! Me too! I don't like going to the library for that reason! I hate getting discouraged time and time again.

    Lori, My mother passed down a beautiful gift to me as her mother did to her. I hope that I can to my kids as well. So far, so good....

    Virginia, Actually, I have come to the conclusion that children's authors are actually brilliant. A children's author who can hold both the interest and captivate a child and an adult! Sure genius. So many books we read as kids, as I've gone back and read them as an adult, I've realized what incredible authors they truly are!

    Abbie, The book is, "Freedom" by Jonathan Franzen. I've had that happen to me on vacation. It's the pits.

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