Even though I’m in the middle of reading 7 other books, I decided to start reading The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova.  I missed reading about vampires.  Also, I wanted to read something that had nothing to do with any challenges or read-alongs, wasn’t for one of my classes, and wasn’t an ARC.  Besides all that, The Historian has been on my TBR shelf for far too long.

12 pages in, and I’ve already bookmarked 2 quotes.  One concerns traveling, and the other is about books.

“A train carried us to Vienna; my father hated planes, which he said took the travel out of traveling.”

Sadly, I’ve never traveled long distance by train.  However, I have traveled quite a bit throughout my life.  I hate planes.  I’m not afraid of flying.  I just feel the same way as her father.  Unfortunately, they’re a necessary evil, and one I couldn’t stand long before all of the added security that makes the experience even worse.  The only consolation for flying is getting time to read, which leads me to the other quote.

“I flipped through the rest of the pages – when you handle books all day long, every new one is a friend and a temptation.”

This sums up my life.  It’s how I feel when I’m in the book store and the library, and when I’m looking at all the potentially good books on Netgalley.  Reading, writing, critiquing, and editing books are the activities that keep me up into the night, wake me before the sun comes up, and make me forgetful of everything else.  I’ve never felt about any other job or career I’ve had as I do about books.  It’s a shame that I spent most of my life listening to people who told me I needed to be practical, that I couldn’t/wouldn’t/shouldn’t work in the publishing industry for so many reasons.  I’m grateful to the people who have come into my life in the past couple years who have encouraged and supported me.  Most of all, they made me realize that, while being able to pay the bills is important, it’s more important to do what I’m truly passionate about.  Otherwise, the hard work and the long hours aren’t worth it.