Do you Read?

Has anyone else ever simply fallen into a book?  I admit that I do and quite often.  Which is why at 5:30 in the butt crack of dawn I am writing this; as a matter of fact.  I just finished a trilogy that I started yesterday. I just purchased the second two books and reread the first; it was a cliff hanger and I wanted the story to be cohesive in my mind; I immediately read two but as I was reading three I was repeatedly accosted with the feelings of recognition. The story and happening seemed so familiar I wonder if I had not in fact read the book some years back.  This is always a possibility but I usually am the one to remember obscure books that I read. I do tend to reread my favorites and have series and collection that I read somewhat annually, if not more often truth be told.  I also have books in my personal library that I have not read in decades but still remember so well I could tell you how to spell the alien planets and describe the characters in detail.  I digress. My point was I can lose myself in a story and when I am finished it’s as if I was blessed by some random book deity to have been allowed into this other world. When I say fall into a book I am not exaggerating its very Alice in Wonderland or Never Ending Story.  I wonder if I have visited that story before but mostly I am truly glad to have been invited back into that world once again and left to experience the wonder and adventure anew.  I actually am looking forward to visiting it again and I only left it an hour ago.  I wish to be that shieldmaiden who becomes a mage and saves the world from darkness while falling in love with the prince and shares the duty of damsel in distress equally with him throughout the story. I mean come on who wouldn’t? I wish to turn myself into a dragon and fly above the clouds and am so happy that there are stories that I can read that will allow me that privilege. 

Anyway I guess the whole point of this narrative of my thoughts is to thank authors, bards, and teachers that gift us with the stories and the skill to read them.