07/17/2005 Posted @ 09:34 AM PD/ST: "On Reading and Mr. Potter"

The first book I read this weekend was not the new Harry Potter book, which arrived yesterday morning around 10AM. It was delivered by an already frazzled postman who had both the book and a "pick-up notice" in his hands. The postal service was not allowed to just leave the books if no one was at home to take personal delivery, so he had all his notices ready just in case.

A co-worker had been giving me a hard time about Harry Potter. He somehow decided that an off-hand remark about it being Harry Potter weekend meant I was really "into" Harry Potter. He started Friday off by asking at 8AM if I had gotten my book yet and looked rather puzzled when I asked how would I know since I had been at work at 7AM. "Well, you know, you're really into it and I figured you might have had a special deal or something." Well, you know ... no.

Yes, I pre-ordered like the rest of the Harry Potter world that wasn't standing outside some bookstore on Friday night in order to buy the book when it went on sale at midnight on Saturday morning. And I figured the book would arrive on the day of release, just as the last one did. This co-worker just kept niggling at me with his stupid assumptions which I ignored most of the day, because really, what's the point? Toward the end of the day he asked something about when did I think I would get it and I simply shrugged my shoulders and said, "I dunno. When it gets there, it gets there. I'm not in that big a hurry." I could feel the power of the lightbulb going on over his head at my desk. Finally he gets that I'm a fan, not a fanatic. (And yes, all you pedantic people out there, I am aware that fan has its roots in fanatic.)

What I did read on Saturday was a most marvelous book called The Elegant Gathering of White Snows by Kris Radish. GIR's SO gave it to me at my grad party. When she told me it was about 8 women and had been an Oprah book, I tried not to wrinkle my nose in distaste. Usually when someone tells me a book about women, it's some sentimental garbage about how he done her wrong and how she wallows in that for most of the book until someone or something sweeps in and rescues her. I can't stand those books.

The last Oprah book I read was The Pilot's Wife and within about 20 pages, I had it figured out and wanted to throw it out the window. We were trying to start a book club at work so I stuck with it, but I didn't enjoy it. My manager at the time kept telling me that I didn't really know what was going to happen, there was a twist and wouldn't believe me at the end of the book when I told him that while I had not figured out the specifics, I can smell a cheating husband a mile away. The book was tripe. Not a good recommendation to read any other Oprah book.

But this book, this was different. It was empowering. It is about 8 women walking ... but it's 8 women walking in order to do something positive in their lives, to regain themselves and get themselves pointed in the right direction again. One character is clinically depressed and the chapter about her life made me weep, right in St. John's just after I had finished my Saturday burger. I dabbed my eyes and kept reading, the book was so powerful and so enriching and cleansing in a way. It's one of those books that makes me want to crawl inside and be with those characters. Few books move me that way.

Thank you M. for giving me this book and taking a chance on believing I would love it as much as you did.