I’ve been raised to be a reader.  My parents both always had at least one book on the go, and I quickly followed suit, devouring stories and novels in my youth, and savoring classics in my young adulthood.  Years of working long days and chauffeuring kids to soccer practices dearly hampered my page turning addiction, but now I find myself with a bit more time to indulge my passions.  I cook, I organize, I walk and yes, I READ.  I love opening a book, to me it’s like opening a door to a wonderful new world. I lose myself in the story, connecting with characters, seeing images in my mind as the author paints an intricately detailed landscape of life, death, love, hate, peace and war.

I find myself right now in the doldrums of “post book blues”.  I just finished reading First Circle Club, by Alex Siegel.  I jumped in to a world in which heaven and hell exist, demons and angels grumpily work together for a greater cause and souls return to earth.  This is one of my favorite genres for pure entertainment, and I am impressed by Siegel’s creativity and imagination.  The characters drew me in, each with their own unique story about how they ended up in either heaven or hell.  Their passions and morals sculpted by evil or good, and how they channeled those urges to work together against a common foe, for a common purpose.

This book was exactly what I needed for a day at the lake, watching my husband cast his line in, while I sat with a thermos of tea and my book, happy as could be.  I was entertained by the antics of the characters and their myriad of earthly problems, and enjoyed this book for what it was, a wonderful few hours of enjoyable escapism, written in a relaxed style that made me instantly friends with the protagonist, Virgil.  Irrelevant that he was created from mud from the Plains of Fire in the seventh circle of hell, he was a likable guy, just trying to get the job done and maybe try to enjoy his second lease on life as long as he could.  He, and the other characters were interesting, often funny and quirky, just like this book.

While I don’t always have time to sink into a book, I was grateful to have the chance to enjoy First Circle Club, and look forward to the sequel.  Now that I’m “bookless” I hope the wait won’t be too long.