Tess Gerritsen. There’s the short answer. Do you remember that I started one of her mysteries and said that I would see if I felt that “I’ve got to read all her books!” feeling at the end of the book? Well, I did. I am now on my sixth Gerritsen. Can’t stop. Although I will have to stop soon as I am rapidly going through them. I’ve had a lot of time to read lately what with hours spent in airports, on planes, sitting on the sofa at my sister’s house and reading in bed. I must admit I love being on a plane or stuck in an airport only when I have something totally involving to read. Ms. Gerritsen writes very detailed mysteries involving a Medical Examiner named Maura and a detective named Jane. Sometimes Jane is the focus, and sometimes Maura – sometimes they both are. Various other characters are recurring in all the books. The setting is Boston – which I love since I used to live there. All I know is that I can’t put them down.

I’ve finished with the Jane Rizzoli/Maura Isles series. Good news: another is due out in September. I’m now reading The Bone Garden, which is one of her medical mysteries. I’ve just started it. Luckily there are at least three or four of these I haven’t read. Gerritsen is a former doctor and her knowledge helps to make these books riveting.

Hope your holiday weekend is a happy one. I have to travel to NYC tomorrow for rehearsal, so I will be laboring on Labor Day!

More later.

I admit it. I love books. I can’t get enough of them. It is very difficult for me to pass a bookstore without going inside. I stockpile them. Believe me, this little pile is only a portion of the books I have not read yet. They are stashed everywhere. Novels, non-fiction, biography, decorating, knitting, crochet, quilting, self-help, spiritual…you name it. My name is Claudia and I am a book addict.

I’ve been this way since I was a child. There was nothing better than reading – nothing. I was that child that had to be strongly encouraged to “Go Outside and Play.” I was always much more comfortable sitting in a chair reading. Or sitting on the porch reading. Or lying in bed reading. My weekly visit to our Bookmobile made me so happy. Miss McHenry was our Bookmobile librarian. She sat behind her desk and stamped our books out. I remember a time when all I would check out were books with red covers – a big stack of red books. You know the feeling? A whole new stack of unread books! I’ve always had more books on hand than I have had time to read. I like it that way. My idea of hell is traveling on the subway, on a commuter train, by plane and not having a book or enough books for the journey. Heaven forbid!

Do you have the same addiction? I freely admit to it. I think books enrich our lives beyond measure. And its not only reading the book, its holding the book in my hands, feeling the page under my fingertips, looking at the font, folding down the corner to mark my place – all of it. That’s why I have trouble with books on tape, or books on computer…they are not for me. I have to read the words on the page with my own voice in my head, not someone else’s. My imagination is sparked and I embark on a wondrous journey.

Perhaps I should have entitled this “An Ode to Books.”