losing track

C.S. Lewis, I am 99.9% confident, was the guy who said that perhaps the reason we lose track of time is because we were made for a place outside of time.  I re-read the Chronicles of Narnia in 2008, and I always found myself crying because of the beauty and simplicity of the way he explained things like prayer - or the Narnian equivalent of them - so that children could understand them.  Apparently my granddaddy was like that. I wish I could have talked to him more now that I'm older...

Over Christmas break, I started reading the Wrinkle in Time series by Madeline L'Engle.  I've read the first four of the quintet now.  The children in these stories tesser - they jump across space and/or time.  They sing with the stars, talk to angels, they witness the creation of the world.  And these books are getting better as I go along.  I'm about to start the 5th one now, and since I stayed up till 3am to finish _Many_Waters_ and it was so good.  I shed a tear or two at the beauty of it.  If I had been willing to pause long enough to reach for a pen, I would have underlined so much of the last few chapters.  Anyway, good books. Read them. 

Since I got home from home for Christmas break (do I need a post about how I refer to Florence as home when I'm in Dover and vice versa when I'm vice versa?), I've been losing track of which home I'm in.  I'll be drowsy downstairs and think "yeah, it's time to go up to bed" but the bed I'm thinking of is the little twin bed in Florence and not the nice big queen bed in Dover.  I'll be doing my nails in Dover and think I'm doing my nails in Florence.  Sometimes I'll even start to talk to my mom...This morning when I was in that half-awake state of being, I thought I was in Florence and my roommate downstairs in Dover was my mom AND my dad (talented girl, huh?) doing their morning thing in Florence.  Basically, if my mind is elsewhere (half asleep, half awake, focusing on creating perfectly rounded fingernails, etc.) I have the ability to lose track of space.

So apparently, I'm not created for space or time. 

Maybe?

I love reading. I like escaping into the stories of other people's imaginations. I typically only read fiction. The escape doesn't seem to work as well if it's nonfiction. And I love mysteries. There is a definite end to the story when the clever detective uses "the little gray cells" to catch the crook and put him/her away. I'm impressed by the mental acuity of the good guys, and sometimes even the planning of the bad guys. And then when I finish reading, I marvel at the author's ability to weave it all together.

This is the mystery I am currently, supposedly, reading. It is a mystery novel featuring my favorite couple, Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane Wimsey, created by Dorothy L. Sayers.  I recently re-read all of Sayer's mysteries that featured the couple, and enjoyed them immensely.  Sayers died before she could finish all the Lord Peter/Harriet stories that she had planned, so her descendants asked Walsh to finish two of them.  This is the second.  It takes place during World War II in England. And I just can't get into it.

Maybe it's because I get the feeling that I have read it before (I was convinced that I hadn't), maybe it's because the mystery I read before the Lord Peter series also took place in London during World War II, maybe it's just because I'm finally burnt out on mysteries...whatever the reason, I don't seem to want to read this one.

So since I already own several books that I have yet to read, I thought I'd get some input into what to start next. Here are your options:

1. I have been wanting to re-read the Harry Potter series. (Ok, so technically this doesn't fit in my criteria of 'haven't read yet. but this is my list, so I can ignore my own rules...) So I could start with HP#1.
   
2. I also have the boxed set of the Wrinkle in Time series, which I have never read, but when I told my sister and brother-in-law that I was tempted to get it just because I loved the cover/box design, they told me I MUST get it and MUST read them, post haste.  They also got a set for any future children they may have, which will be named something creative like Blakey Axel.  So, I could start that series.  And since they were written for children, I should be able to get through them easily.
   
3. Or, I could pick and choose short stories from the Best American Non-required Reading 2008.  I got the 2007 version for Spring Break last year and read it cover to cover. Cool idea. They have a Best American for pretty much everything these days. If you don't like Non-required Reading, maybe you'll like Sports Writing or Spiritual Writing, or Mystery Writing. (ooh! Mysteries!)

So. Those are the options. 

What do you think?