No more reading!!

I made a BIG proclamation yesterday: I'm not going to read anymore!! This is a pretty heavy statement for a librarian. It just hurts too much! Thursday night I read a book that just broke my heart.
Let me explain: The book was "Grandpa's Mountain", a 1991 children/young adult novel, set in the mountains of Virginia, during the Great Depression. The point of view was from an 11 yr. old girl who spent the summers with her grandparents in the mountains. She got through the year looking forward to her summers with them. The story is about when they were buying the land to build the Blue Ridge Parkway. The book is fiction, but much of it is based on the true story of a man who fought to save his land. In the novel, the girl's grandfather does all he can to save his ancestoral home & business, but in the end, they are moved out and their home burned. He eventually works through his grief, and moves on to the challenge of rebuilding their lives. It's a good book overall, but just heart wrenching.
When I read a book, especially novels, I get totally absorbed into them. I really identified with the characters' love of their land in this book, and how the girl felt-it's how I feel about our homeplace here in Conway. It's the place I escaped to from the city when I was growing up. My roots are miles deep there. Right now, I don't even want to see the Blue Ridge Parkway, Shenandoah National Park, or Skyline Drive! Yes millions of people have enjoyed it through the years, building it provided jobs for many when they desperately needed jobs, and many of the people benefited by moving to more modern homes, etc. But to have their homes & outbuildings burned so they couldn't go back, sometimes with them watching...just horrible!!

But, all's well that ends well: My resolve only lasted about 3 minutes. I made my bold statement as Alan started down the book aisle at WalMart, by the time I was halfway down the aisle, I spied a book (3 novels in 1) set in West Virginia (one of my favorite places to read about), and 2 of them written by authors I love. I'm back to devouring words! I can do without chocolate (for awhile), but not my books!!! Those of you who know me, know this. Every room in my house has books &/or magazines in it, and of course I'm surrounded by them at work. I'm like a mouse in a cheese factory- YUM YUM!!