There’s nothing like extreme weather to bring you closer to books. Whether it’s in front of a roaring fire, or sitting on the porch with an iced tea, winter and summer are perfect opportunities to slow down and dive into a great book. I understand the challenge of finding the perfect book that can transport you into a completely different time and place. I have found the one. This is a book I’ve heard about from other readers. I have read this author before and enjoyed his quirky novels. They have made movies from them: The World According to Garp, and Cider House Rules. John Irving’s A Prayer for Owen Meany is the book I’m solidly in the middle of reading. Here is a line from the novel:
I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice—not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother’s death, but because he is the reason I believe in God; I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.
Irving is an author who delves into the deeper subjects. This is not a light book or one you might carry with you to the beach. But if you are itching for travel and you have a library card, you may be lucky enough to find a book that will make you remember one of the reasons you learned to read and the joy you had as a child when you found that book that transported you. Which book gave you that feeling that you were living in the story and you never wanted it to end?
At last night’s Ruritan Club meeting, the library’s own Brack Stovall read Ray Bradbury’s short story, “All Summer in a Day.” In this tale, a young girl is locked in a closet on the one day of the year that the sun shines. Bradbury, who died last month, was another author who had no fear of examining the darker side of life. He knew that the stories that take us to the edge are the ones that stay with us.
Check with your Radford library staff for suggestions on books you may want—subjects light and dark.
