02.23.08
Book Droppings
We just returned from a wonderful trip to Australia, a fortunate second visit for us. But wonderful as I knew the trip would be, filled with more things to see than I could take in, I knew there would be down time, hours (like 40 on a plane) when I’d need something to do other than sleep or look out the window. So I planned my leisure time accordingly.
I took romance novels, of course. There were several requisites: no hardcover or trades, as size and weight is a definite consideration. And, although my books are e-published, I’ve yet to decide on the perfect handheld reader, so packing a library on one wouldn’t do either. I wanted a variety of historical and contemporary and I wanted a guaranteed good read from a favorite author. Plus they had to be cheap, because I was going to leave them where I finished them.
Several years ago, my romance reading club had participated in BookCrossing’s “read and release” program. Trip preparation being what it is, I didn’t have time to register any of my choices before going, so I was just going to leave them on their own without explanation.
So, what did I pack? At time of departure, I was reading Jana DeLeon’s Unlucky, so it went in first. From the used book store, I gathered two Deborah Smith’s, A Place to Call Home and Sweet Hush, Susan Elizabeth Phillips’ First Lady, and Laura Parker’s Notorious.
I’d like to say I read and left all five, but I can’t. I read 2 1/2 and left 3. Here’s how that works:
I was so tired and sleepy at the end of the days, I actually fell asleep before my head hit the pillow. On the plane rides, I was lured by movies and sleep and crossword puzzles in the back of the flight magazines. But by the time we were on the Ghan, Australia’s north-south passenger train, Unlucky and I were ready to part ways. It went to a lovely woman from Perth, Western Australia, who was needing a new author. A Place to Call Home traveled to England with another Ghan friend, one who had fallen into the lure of a trendy trade paperback in the airport book shop. It had a good premise, a story line she normally loved, but the writing was awful. Did I have a solution for her!
Sweet Hush I finished on the plane to LAX. Rather than leave it to the cleaners, who I thought might toss it as rubbish (as if!), I held it until the gate area. We’d bought a USA Today, and as we were finishing each section, we placed it on a communal table for others and others were picking it up, reading it and placing it back. Just a bit of karma for all those discarded papers I’ve read. So I carefully placed Sweet Hush within view and waited.
No one picked it up. Did they really think it was mine? I nudged it more into the center of the table. Nothing. Okay, perhaps the woman reading the hardcover book (and she had already devoured our paper), really needed something more uplifting and fun.
“Pardon me,” I began, “but do you read romance?” I held Sweet Hush up for her.
She actually looked down her nose at me. Disdain dripped. “Oh,” she snubbed, “I don’t read that.”
I carefully placed the book back on the table and cleared the newspapers from around it. I left it on its own to find a new reader.
And I hope that woman’s book had a terribly despondent, sad, unlikable ending. I really do.