Have you ever met up with an old friend and had coffee? Did you feel the instant camaraderie and connection? The feeling that it really hasn’t been that long? The comfort of knowing you can always pick up where you left off? Yes? 

That is why I re-read some of my favorite authors and their stories. It may be that several years go by and one day I’ll be driving along (this is typically my mind wandering time) and a storyline will pop into my head. The characters seem like old friends and I wonder what they are up to. I know they aren’t real. I know their story is the exact same as when I read it the first time, the fifth time, heck, even the twentieth time. But I still have that desire to reconnect. So I go to my packed full library shelves and pull out that book for a re-read. If I’m super pressed for time, I may swing by my library app and check out the audio book to listen to while I’m driving in Nashville traffic.

“Reading is escape, and the opposite of escape; it’s a way to make contact with reality after a day of making things up, and it’s a way of making contact with someone else’s imagination
after a day that’s all too real.”

Nora Ephron

I have been an avid romance reader since I read Cinderella by myself for the first time. Reading has been my escape when the world around me was too much. I could fall into a book and be back in medieval times where knights abounded and ladies wore long dresses. Or I could jump into Regency England and experience the Ton (well before Bridgerton became the phenomenon it is now, I was a fan). I could ride a horse in the wild west with strong, sassy women who were strong enough to tame the frontier. I could walk the streets of New York City or New Orleans or San Francisco and live the life of a twenty something contemporary woman who is finding her place in the world, conquering professional goals and overcoming just about anything. I just love it all. A lot of my problems or mental struggles were solved in the back of my mind while I was escaping into a literary world. 

Books really can take you anywhere and finding ones you want to read again and again? To me, that is priceless. 

Happily Ever After Forever !

Stay Blessed!

mee