My lifeline

Books. My one constant never-fail-to-be-there companion. My teacher, my best friend, my lifeline. During one of my darkest hour, when human contact pained me more than it consoled me, books were my lifeline. The story distracted me from my own misery, mummed my screaming brain. It's the lifeline that kept me for not drowning.

I grew up as an avid reader. I was lucky, we lived nearby a good local library. It was a favourite hang-out place for me and my friends. And no, we were not geeks. In those days, being seen in library was not consider a capital sin. I read anything, anywhere, anytime possible.

My reading frequency reduced drastically once I started working. I found it hard to muster the energy to read book after a long hectic day of working. With book, you need concentration to digest the language, devour the words, respect the message that the author trying to pass. It was much easier to turn on the TV instead and watch mindless show. Reading book become a side activity just before I go to sleep. Sometime I can't even finish reading 1 page. It's no wonder that lately it could take me anywhere between 2 to 8 weeks to finish one book.

But these last 3.5 weeks have been an exception. The course I'm taking is not demanding. I come back every night to an empty hotel room. No husband and crazy cats that distract me. TV bored me. I couldn't stand going to the pub with my course mates every single night. So I end up finding myself with lots of time in my hand. And as usual, books never fail to save me. Even tho I was alone most of the time, I was never really lonely. Not when I'm eating my dinner, not when I was sitting in the train for 1 hour on the way to London, not when I'm stuck in those long transit hours in the airport and not (so much) when I'm trying to sleep in my vacant hotel bed.

I've read 4 novels so far and all were pretty good. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (A), I know this Much is True by Wally Lamb (A-), Water for Elephant by Sara Gruen (B) and The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley (B-). I started The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, but for some reason i couldn't really grab me. So I abandon it for now.

And thanks to my Sony PRS600 Reader Touch, storing and buying books during travel have been made easy. Being a light traveler, books used to give me logistical problem. I could never seem to get the right balance between carrying too much or too little books. More often than not, I end up having to leave books behind. But problem no more! E-book store is available 24-7 online and if I want to, I could carry 1000+ books with me inside a small 2GB memory card.

I just bought two more new books for my 21 hours travel home. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Pie by Marry Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows and The House of Riverton by Kate Morton. Only two more nights. I think I'm ready to go :)