Inkheart...

Happy Holidays! It actually feels like the holidays if you look outside - it's snowy and quiet, except for the hordes of birds that are working the feeder over. There are still a few goodies laying around (I tossed some because Chuck and I seem to have less than zero resistance to them (- we'll eat them just because they are there, whether we like them, are hungry or even know what they are - sad but true). And I have been doing nothing- that's mostly because I'm not supposed to be doing anything, but partly because I have been reading... And any of you that know me well, know that once I start a book I like, I am gone til I've finished it. I always "think" I'm going to pace myself so it will last. Yeah right.
I’ve read several books since my surgery. The first one was a Dean Koontz book about a woman who wakes up in a hospital bed with no memory of who she is or why she might be in the hospital… Yeah, Chuck thought that was pretty humorous when he found it in the hospital while waiting for me to go under the knife. And it actually was a pretty good little suspense novel that I didn’t have all figured out well before hand.
But, the book that I have enjoyed the most since I've been recuperating is one we got after seeing a trailer for the upcoming movie “Inkheart”. It's a story about Mo, a bookbinder (played by Brendan Frasier in the movie)and his daughter Meggie. Mo has the unusual ability to bring characters from novels to life when he reads out loud. The thing is, when a character comes out of the book, one goes in as well, and he lost his wife into the story when he inadverdantly brought some villains out. The first book is all about trying to set things straight – or not…
One of the things I liked about it was that there was a lot of action and suspense, but yet a minimum of actual violence. I guess I should point out that this is a book that is put out by “Chicken House” a part of Scholastic Art – presumably a children’s book. It is 543 pages long, but has fairly large type (I like that:0) and it was written originally in German, which was apparent from some of the things in the story. (Miste I think your boys might like it).
So, anyway I really enjoyed the book and when I finished there were two chapters at the end, one from the second book “Inkspell”, and one from “Inkdeath” the final book in the trilogy that comes out in 2008. From those chapters it looks like there will be a lot more action( and some violence.) We got the second book “Inkspell” (635 pages!) and I started reading it last night.
Here is a passage I particularily liked
“Isn’t it odd how much fatter a book gets when you’ve read it several times?’ …”As if something were left between the pages every time you read it. Feelings, thoughts, sounds, smells…and then, when you look at the book again many years later, you find yourself there, too, a slightly younger self, slightly different, as if the book had preserved you like a pressed flower…both strange and familiar”.

So, on this blustery, gray, snowy day I am going to read and leave a part of myself behind in the book while I venture into another world for a time.