Book Blahs

I am twitchy and out of sorts.  It has been way too long since my last one.  I can’t concentrate; I am fidgety and impatient.  I need a good book to read and I need one now! Summer for me is usually a time where I like to read and read and read some more.  When I was a kid, I lost a whole summer to the Little House books and as a teenager I was back to school before I knew it thanks to John Jakes and his epic sagas.  

I took the kids and my mom to the library last week and they scampered around finding armfuls of books.  I found audio books for Bill and his long commute (“The Omnivore’s Dilemma” seemed like a good idea at the time) and then looked around for me.  Nothing.  Not one book caught my interest or invited me to crack the spine and read more.  Not one.  I thought maybe it was because I had interviewed there and they did not hire me and I was being subconsciously childish towards the books in an “you don’t want me, I don’t want your books” kind of fashion, or maybe it was because I found myself face to face with “Little Bee” again and was too disgusted to look further.  I just couldn't find anything.  Later in the week, I did check out some books from work but they were not the good book fix I needed either.  Meg Wolitzer’s “The Interestings”?  Not so interesting at all. The most interesting thing about the book is its fruit striped cover; I gave up after four chapters.  Dan Brown’s “Inferno”?  I finished it, but I skimmed an awful lot along the way and kind of wished that Robert Langdon would not find his way out of this one.  Perhaps reading such excellent children’s literature has left me disdainful of adult fiction?  "Wonder" and "The One and Only Ivan"  are two books I recommend instantly when people ask if I have read anything good lately.

I want to find this year’s “Gone Girl”.  And no, “Reconstructing Amelia”, you are not it.  I want characters I love right away like the ones in “Me Before You” or characters that are so terrible I feel immediately better about myself and am compelled to continue.  Sometimes during the summer, I like to revisit   favorite authors and see if there is a book of theirs that I haven't read yet. A little PD James for wit, snarky dialogue and a cast of heinous characters only a British author can truly develop, some Larry McMurtry for a Western that is not really a western, or maybe some Marion Keyes for an Irish woman in her late 20’s who is trying to get her life together and loved by her quirky, sister-laden family.  No interest in any of them this year. Sigh.  When I was younger, I used to reread favorite books all the time but now I think rereading is a little pointless.  Or maybe I just have less time to read and like what I am reading to be new. 

I need to find a page-turner.  A read until my neck is sore and my eyes are burning kind of book.  One where you lose track of time and your surroundings and the kids ask for things and you agree to them while saying “Mommy is reading” and later find yourself dishing out ice cream for dinner because you said okay earlier. I want a book that is so well written and so absorbing I find myself with a book hangover when I am done reading.  So help, please, and quickly!