My Utopia

Literature is my Utopia. Here I am not disenfranchised. No barrier of the senses shuts me out from the sweet, gracious discourses of my book friends. They talk to me without embarrassment or awkwardness.
Helen Keller

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Every time I find the time to go back to these books I am amazed at the wisdom and insight into life I gain from them. As a child they were merely a fun, fast read. As a teenager they were just a good story, well told. As an adult they continue to teach me more about myself than I would have thought possible from a book written long ago, to another generation, with no real punch-them-in-the-face morality. 

The premise of most of them is the same: a heroin in trouble, a gentleman of upstanding character, a bad guy or spy or criminal of some kind, a lovely New England or eastern setting well described. Yet although this would seem to grow stale eventually, the author had the ability to make it new and fresh with each book she wrote. 

The love of nature comes out with the stunningly real and vivid descriptions of the land in which she lived. 

The morals of her creed are touted by each hero and heroin that comes alive on the pages. 

The sincerity of her faith comes through the little bits of references she makes to an event and a person that she feels the world needs to know and emulate.

As I re-read these favorites and rediscover old friends, I am shaken by the amazing ability she was blessed with to make her writings say vastly different things to different readers. And by the longevity of these books that were written in the mid 1900's, yet are so coveted today that they sale for phenomenal prices anywhere you can find them. Which isn't very many places. We are fortunate to own many, though not all, of her fifty some-odd books.

Over this break I have read or re-read about six of them and each time I come across something so deep it rocks me off my feet, I am convinced again that reading is, to quote Miss Keller, My Utopia. And I need to make time in my schedule for the relaxation of virtually complete and utter oblivion. My escapism...

My reading.

(Chica, This one's for you. So stop whining.)

Check it out...   Or here...

LadyAnne