T. S. Eliot may have called April “the cruellest month,” but I’m not finding it so. In fact, I’m looking forward to two train rides, a motor trip, and the plane that will take me home to Philadelphia from San Francisco. All in April. Each five to six hours long. And while the destinations: San Luis Obispo; Ashland, OR; and Philly are all happily anticipated, it’s the five- or six-hour chunks of time that really beckon. I find time spent traveling in a confined space as conducive to enjoying books as curling up in an easy chair by a fire. Occasionally looking out of windows is the only beckoning distraction.The tactile satisfaction of a paper book is still my preference when I’m in that comfy chair, but travel certainly proves the virtues of an e-book for me. In my case it’s a Kindle. It really is a portable library. Right now I can dip into any of two unread or unfinished novels, a wonderful non-fiction book, and lots of old favorites I love to revisit. I’m not much of a modern fiction reader anymore, unless it’s a really good mystery. My taste has changed as I’ve gotten older. How about you? Do you still like the same kinds of books you used to find appealing? Do you revisit old treasures? Which ones?
My next non-fiction book will be The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot, but right now, Krista Tippett’s Einstein’s God has me enthralled. The waiting fiction is The White Tiger: A Novel, and Suite Francaise, by Irene Nemirovsky. When I need to laugh, which is often, I can quickly get back to the sunnier, funnier world inhabited by Bertie Wooster and Jeeves in the several P. G. Wodehouse collections always on my Kindle. People may notice when I laugh out loud, but when they realize I’m an ElderChick they smile too.
Often I hear an interview or lecture and order the speaker’s book – if I remember the name long enough! When I see a favorite current mystery writer has a new book, I no longer wait for the paperback; I order it on my Kindle for about the same price. Just about all of the Agatha Christie titles, and many others from the Golden Age of British mysteries, are now in the public domain and cost only a dollar or two at most. I have many and can thoroughly enjoy them since I no longer remember whodunit – not until I reach the next to the last chapter, that is.
I’d love to hear about what you’re reading and what you recommend. Send your recommendations here.
ElderChicks 
Safe travels, Thelma, and have a wonderful time. We’ll miss you at YAP and look forward to seeing pics from your trip and grandchildren and granddog when you get back.
xxoo
deb
Read your blog. I too have a Kindle ( my second one since I lost the first ) and I love it. I find it so much easier to read in bed with the Kindle as opposed to a heavy book. I too have downloaded the book about Henrietta Lacks but haven’t read it yet. I am currently reading a medical mystery by Peter Clement called The Inquisitor. I have also downloaded Committed and The Three Weinstein’s of Westbrook. So I have my reading cut out for my for a while!!
Thanks, Thel, for giving me “Einstein’s God.” I loved it, followed it up with “The Sistine Secrets: Michelangelo’s Forbidden Messages in the Heart of the Vatican” by Benjamin Blech and Roy Doliner. Easy reading and fascinating ideas. I am now reading Erik Larson’s “Devil in the White City,” the blurb of which reads “Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America.” It’s a true story about the legendary 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, intertwining two men–one the brilliant architect who was the director of the exposition, Daniel H. Burnham, and Dr. H. H. Holmes, an urban serial killer born, as he confessed, with the devil in him. I don’t kindle, but the books are getting heavier, not in depth of subject, but simply the weight of the pages!
I am an avid reader and lover of words. All words. I started my love affair with words and descriptions the moment I learned about letters of the alphabet in my early years. However I only read. The idea of being an author and creating stories and poems with those words didn’t occur to me until recently.
Once retired and finding lots of time on my hands, a search began to find something fictional to enjoy about characters ‘my age’. There was nothing (or very little). Most of the leading characters were sweet and lovely twenty-somethings involved in stories with which I couldn’t connect.
A friend dared me to try to write the type of stories I was searching for and I accepted her dare. At 60 years old I began a new and challenging career. I was excited and surprised to be accepted by a publisher and now have four books out in the marketplace and more to come. These books tell of women over 50 and their lives, friendships and yes, romances.
I have a web site telling of my work and love what I am doing – almost seventy and have found a brand new niche in this world. Proves it is never to late to begin a wonderful adventure . . . Margaret