A Must Read

Well for some of you book lovers out there, I have a book for you. It's called The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield.

Okay, here's the thing. I've had this book on my shelf for probably a year. For those of you who don't know, I have a lot of books. I love reading and I love collecting books almost as much, if not more. I live in a very small place, so I have to limit the amount of books that I buy. Most of the books I read now have been checked out of the Library and only occasionally will I buy one.

I really don't even remember buying this book, but there it was on my shelf. Well to be honest, I've tried to read it before. Twice. I would pick it up, read a few chapters, get distracted and set it back on the shelf. I really wanted to read it, it just never seemed like the right time. Now I know why. It's becuase I needed a day when I had nothing else to do and nowhere to go.

Saturday was such a day. When I got up, it wasn't a bad day outside and I was thinking that I should go to the store and run a few errands, but my heart wasn't in it. I really just did not want to leave the house. I thought, well, if I don't go anywhere, I should go through some bins that I have been wanting to go through and get rid of some stuff. (I've been doing this a lot lately, purging items. Last week I donated six garbage bags full of stuff. Don't ask me what I gave away I could hardly tell you. It's like not only did I purge it out of my house, but out of my mind too.)

Anyway, I got up, got dressed and then I thought of that book. That book that I have had for a year, have wanted to read, started to read, twice. I went and got it. I went and got a drink and sat in my favorite rocking chair and opened the book. I started to read. I skimmed through the first few chapters, they were already familiar to me, having already read them, I started to settle into the flow of the words. At first hearing the words I was reading in my head in my own voice, then gradually the characters were taking over and I started hearing the story in their own voices. Margeret, a bit reserved, quiet, maybe a bit hoarse as you can tell that she doesn't use her own voice that much in her world and Vida's a little raspy, but full and deep, with a lifetime, maybe three lifetimes of experience.

The subject matter is not sweet and lighthearted. The writing is supberb. It's a mystery. It's a tragedy. It's a book about people lives. It's a book about books. It's a book about twins. It's a book about being alone. It's a book about family. It is SO worth reading. Don't give up on it. But give it your time. I did not put this book down until I was done. It stayed with me the rest of the day and the rest of the weeked.

Just a little note about twins. The book has it's own ideas and maybe some twins feel the way the writer describes. Maybe she is a twin and has those feelings or maybe she just thinks that it's how all twins feel. Heather and I are not like this. We are close. We love each other. But we don't have those "psychic" feelings that some twins do. I think that it's because our mother never raised us to be one half of a whole, she always raised us to each be our own whole person. My mom never allowed our teachers to treat us as anything but seperate individuals. We were never in the same classes in school, except one time in High School. We had one class together, but that hardly counts as I always sluffed this class and so it was like Heather took the class by herself anyway. We do some stuff that can be construed as Twin like, but I think it more likely that this is because we like some of the same things, we are conscious of each other in a way that sisters are conscious of each other. Maybe Shamo and Sarah have a different experience? Maybe they can related more closely to the feeling described in this book. In any case, I don't think that you don't have to be a twin to share a connection with another person.

All this, just to tell you that I read a good book this weekend. If you ever get a chance to read the book, let me know what you think.

Happy Reading.