Read

"Anyone who says they have only one life to live must not know how to read a book."

-- Author Unknown

"Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it."

-- P.J. O'Rourke

Reading is the cheapest form of travel. Just this morning, as I finished up "The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood" (a cheap copy I picked up at an estate sale months ago), I was in a sunflower field in southern Louisiana, sucking crayfish heads and drinking bourbon.

I'm always a little more emotional during and immediately after finishing a book, drawing bits and pieces of the characters that I loved and trying to make them traits of my own. It's a silly habit, probably not very healthy, but I can't help it. Sherlock Holmes and James Bond and Danny Ocean and Jason Bourne and have ruined me-- I'll never possess their cool-wise-confidence: a mental library of explosive powders, the ability to say the right thing at the right time, dead-on aim...

My favorite book is a bit of a cliche, "Pride and Prejudice," as I'm sure every girl thinks she relates to Lizzie, but I really do, you see! She dearly loves to laugh, she adores books more than people, she's loyal to her family, and she'd rather be alone forever, with herself, than tolerate. That's feminism.

I hate the idea of this.