Escapism

There's a lot swimming around in my head about work, money, the economy, and mothering, but it all seems rather heavy and I don't yet feel like ordering my thoughts to write about them. So instead I bring you a fluffy discussion on the glories of fluffy novels.

Since I started my job I've been reading a lot more. I used to turn the TV on just to have it on after Landon went to bed, but now I watch about 4 shows a week (Top Chef, which just ended with no Project Runway to start up again, The Office, 30 Rock, and the Desperate Housewives/Brothers & Sisters combo because I like sitting down on the couch on Sunday evenings and JP secretly loves watching them with me) and spend the rest of my off-duty mom time curled up on the couch reading. And not reading anything intelligent or work-related, in fact, I read less news and legal publications than I did in law school- now, it's all about escape. Most recently I've been journeying to 18th Century Scotland, via Diana Gabaldon's Outlander (my favorite book series ever, well, besides maybe Harry Potter, but it's too different to compare), to early 19th Century America with Sara Donati's Into the Wilderness, or to England's king and courts through Philippa Gregory. I don't want to read anything that makes me think- so far, I don't even want to read anything I haven't already read before. I've been flipping through worn pages, skipping ahead to favorite parts, and getting lost in a world without Blackberries or document review (or hot running water or a woman's right to vote, but we're not nit picking here).

I love leaning about another time- while all those books are categorized as "historical romances" the reason they're my favorites is because they're heavy on the historical- well researched and rich with detail. I hate the shallow, typical romance novels with the same plot line that always ends tied in a bow with the brave, rich hero and the beautiful, young heroine triumphing over some misunderstanding that kept them apart for 100 irritating pages. The Outlander series is my favorite because it is one of the few series I've read (Harry Potter being another) where everything fits together perfectly book after book. There's no plot lines discarded halfway through, no repetition in dialogue or plot, and despite a span of more than twenty years the characters and their relationships remain lively. It takes the author about 3-4 years to write each book and you can tell. The 6th came out two weeks before I started law school in 2005 and the 7th comes out this September, I'm greatly looking forward to it.

Sometimes I feel guilty that I'm not reading anything that challenges me, but I need a way to unwind at the end of the day and thumbing through a well-worn paperback seems healthier than a few of the alternatives. It's hard for me to start anything new because I have a bad habit of staying up all night to finish a book. I'm a very fast reader and it's so hard to stop when I keep promising myself "just a few more pages"- JP has come out to the living room at 4 a.m. to find me still sitting on the couch speed-reading through the final few pages. When I need to get up for work (or school or swim practice) a few hours later I'm furious with myself for not just closing the book and going to bed, but then I'll do it again with the next one, which is why I stopped reading almost entirely during high school and college. But now reading is back and I'm determined to exert slightly more self-control (though I did stay up till 2:30 last week finishing Dragonly in Amber, a book I've read at least three times before. Ridiculous, I know), so if you have any suggestions of books that will be entertaining but not too thought-provoking, please share!

A few of my other favorites are Through a Glass Darkly by Karleen Koen (the sequel Now Face to Face wasn't nearly as good, but the recently published prequel Dark Angels was fantastic). The Angelique series is amazing but very hard to find (and usually expensive when you do)- if you can read French you'll actually be able to finish the story as the last few books were never translated to English (and if you do, you must tell me what happens!). There's more I'm sure, but I can't think of them at the moment. I haven't had a lot of time to read over the past several years, but it's once again become an important part of my evening routine.