Hit the PAUSE button

“Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another’s skin, another’s voice, another’s soul.”
— Joyce Carol Oates

I like it when I'm reading. It's as if the world stood still when I'm immersed in the story between the pages, and the only thing that matters is how the story began and how it ended. And for once, I hit the "PAUSE" button on my tinkering mind.

I also love the way books always come to me at the right time and the right place, again and again. Last night when I was reading Tony Parson's Stories We Could Tell again after three years, it finally felt right with the songs from the Beatles's Abbey Road booming in my ears. And when Ray was talking about his obsession for the years of Bob Dylan, the Doors, and Nick Drake, I was finally able to nod with solemn agreement.

Even more comforting, although I found Ray, Terry, and Leon's struggle in coming to terms with adulthood as something I can relate to then, it is still something I can relate to now. Somehow life feels like a different series of high school, a different series of college, a different series of mid-life crises. There's always the beginning, and there's always the end.