Always Bring A Book.
Abab, say it with me, ab ab.
Always. Bring a book. A! Bab!

Seriously, I have been caught twice in the last week WAITING with nothing to read.
What was I thinking leaving the house without a book? I wasn’t thinking. Well, I was thinking it would only take a minute. But that’s the same as not thinking!

What does it hurt to always bring a book?
It hurts nothing to a b a b.

Books use their powers for good.
Burying your nose in a book makes you a better person.
It helps the time pass more quickly.
It keeps you from filling the time with mind rotting games like Candy Crush Saga and Angry Birds.
It keeps your creative imagination from wondering what’s going on with the other patients in the doctors’ waiting room. Multi-coverage medical facilities leave lots to the imagination…
And if you’re really only there a minute, (right), well, the book makes you look smarter by its mere presence.

I considered getting a book for my “smart” phone. I only use my phone for texting and calling. It can go online, but it sucks my battery in a matter of Angry Bird slingshots. I purposely never loaded my email onto it, who needs that kind of constant pinging?

But I was so desperate I looked at the available book titles. Now, my eyes kind of suck, I am over 40 you know, but I thought, if I can read the titles I can read the pages, right? And have I mentioned my desperation?

They have a list of free titles, but no, nothing that I wanted to commit to. (I was really hoping one of the books I’m already reading would have been on the freebie list!) Out of 100 current and classic book titles, there was nothing I was willing to invest 8 bucks in(EIGHT BUCKS! on average) —to read on my tiny phone screen. Especially when I’m already reading five books.

I like to read several books at a time… there’s one in each bathroom, one in my office, an audio in the car and one on the kindle app. How horrid I feel when I inadvertently leave my office book in the bathroom–where I already have a book! Now they have to vie for my potty attention! And worse, now my office is book-free and the Angry Birds are beckoning… Come, they call, there’re no wordy distractions here…

I think I have multiple books going because it’s hard to start a new book. I savor endings. (And adore well written ones that truly make me miss my characters, wondering what they’re up to now that their lives are free of the pages. Do you think they miss me?)

It takes me a while to get into a new book which is why I enjoy having several middles at any given time. Occasionally I do get confused and it takes me a few pages to untangle my competing story lines, but mostly I read varying genres and that helps. Right now I’m reading Dead Spots by Melissa F. Olson, Next by Michael Crichton,

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter (this month’s book club title), Order of the Phoenix by JK Rowling –it’s a long one—and the whiney teenage Harry is complicit with the whiney teenage protagonist in Open Minds, a YA novel by Susan Kaye Quinn, in making me hate all whiney teenagers.
(Thank goodness I don’t have any!)

Whiney comment aside, they’re all pretty good books, different in formats and genres.

I write like I read, although beginnings are not a challenge—I have plenty of those. I love a new idea! Middles are much more challenging, but c’mon, that makes sense… there’s a lot more to write in the middle. I keep my writings straight the same way I keep my readings straight—by varying the genres. I am currently working on a collection of short stories, book two of my Pandoran Series, and an LGB novel. How’s that for variety?

But that reminds me… if you absolutely can’t abab, then abwab!
Bring a pencil to scribble on the backs of the hospital flyers, always be writing a book!