Read and then sleep. The combination usually works for me. Not last night though. Last night I got stuck into a new book and I couldn’t stop reading. At one point I was laughing in the darkness, trying not to wake Kit. At another, wiping tears from my eyes.
My mom is the same with books. She told me that when my brother and I were little, she had to stop reading for a time because she’d get so enraptured in novels that she wouldn’t do anything else.
I’ve witnesses this book befokedness many times.
During my law articles in Joburg, my parents lived a couple of kilometers up the road. My mom had a self-imposed rule that she would never visit the flat when I wasn’t there (she had access to it). One day at work, I looked at my phone to see I had three voice messages from my mom. The first one, calm – my mom asking me where the second Hunger Games book was. The second almost immediately after the first telling me that when I got home, she wanted to come fetch the second book. And a third telling me that she could no longer wait (about a minute had passed since the second voice message) – she was going to the flat to get the book.
The same thing happened with Twilight. (For the record, we do read other more acclaimed books but these are the most extreme examples of book befokedness). That is to say, I hear you judging us for reading Twilight – fine, I can take it. My mom actually did judge me as I made my way through the series. She told me, more than once, that I should read better books and she didn’t know why I was wasting my time. Then she made the mistake of picking one up. She did not put them down. She started one of the books at 2am. She read while she ate dinner. She could not hold a conversation until the books were done. And after she had smashed all four, she said they weren’t very good. But you have to admit, those books had something.
This is to say, I’m book befoked. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. Just so beautiful.
At around 1am, I made a note in the book, highlighting this paragraph:
“‘Promise me, that no matter what happens, no matter what dumb thing we supposedly perpetrate on each other, we won’t ever go six years without talking to each other. Promise me you’ll always forgive me, and I promise I’ll always forgive you.’ These, of course, are the kinds of vows young people feel comfortable making when they have no idea what life has in store for them.”
I’m going to read and sleep now.
Photograph of the day: Speaking of vows, Marcel and Pieter exchanged theirs this evening in their home, marking their 10th anniversary with a wedding. Here’s a pic I took on my phone just before the ceremony. In case you can’t read the sign – it says: It was always you.