Picking Up an Old Favorite

So I've started reading again. I took a break for the longest time (read: years) cuz this one thing I love to do most in the world gives me migraines.

Actually, to be completely honest, I have to clarify: the way I normally read gives me migraines... as in, obsessively devouring an entire book for hours on end, moving only to relieve myself or vaguely remembering to eat. Ever since my head go so friggin sensitive, it's no wonder this modus operandi has backfired on me.

But I couldn't stay away forever. IHOP Buddy has never given up hope on me... we started kind of our own little book club a while back. And over the last few years, the pile of books she's given me to read keeps growing... they even have their own shelf in one of my bookcases. She keeps asking me if I've read them yet, and I shamefacedly say no and she can have em back if she wants em, and she exasperatedly informs me she doesn't want them back, she wants me to READ them.

So amway, yeah, I've started reading again... was even inspired to pick up a puzzle this last week (I haven't put together a puzzle in AGES). Anything other than vegging in front of the TV (though, I've caught some of the Olympics, too). I've just been retraining myself to read and/or focus on any given activity, but include regular breaks to relieve the strain on my eyes and move around a bit. I've had mixed results in avoiding a migraine... but that's what drugs are good for.

For the most part, the books I've read have been the newest adventures of series I already know and love. Books I've been impatiently waiting for to come out... even though I wasn't reading them. And I've read a few of IHOP Buddies' books, of course, sparking new favorite series (the opportunities for new favorites are really endless). But this weekend I finally picked up a writer I haven't read in YEARS. Ever since... oh, around Gerald's Game and Dolores Claiborne, when he started trying to focus on the psychological thriller angle and ended up just boring.

Back in the Navy, I joined the Stephen King Library... which sent me one book a month (at a discount) in hard bound until I was up to speed (that took a few years). Then, every time a new one came out, they'd automatically send that to me as well. His is my only collection I have in full and in hard bound. I've always been a huge fan of Stephen King, so this is a good thing. However, once I was put off, I just couldn't hop back on. I simply wasn't interested... though I continued with the book club.

And his most recent offering (it had to have been written in the last few months, because among his many cultural references was Katrina) is a book called Cell. I read the jacket... it sounded interesting... and I'm now hooked on King again. :) I'd forgotten how much I like his quirky humor... and his ability to gross you out in such a matter-of-fact manner. And his distinct tendancy to address the truly mundane aspects of life we all take for granted.

And I have to admit I'm just a tad wary of my cell phone now.