I read a book

Okay, I know that shouldn't be surprising, because I love books. Goodness knows I buy enough of them. But between reading for work and reading for training classes and trying to catch up on magazine subscriptions... I honestly couldn't tell you when the last time was that I sat down and read a book for pleasure. I do know that the length of time is measured in months, not days or weeks.

But yesterday I read a book. A whole book, cover to cover. Or more accurately, I read it yesterday and today, since I didn't finish it until about 1 a.m. If the mark of a good book is its ability to make you feel something, then this was an excellent book.

The book is You Can Run by Jesse Archer. It's about a guy looking for love and escaping the growing-up process by running around South America for two years. I've had several reactions to it--a desire to rush out and adopt a child, a desire to go to Borders and buy the Rough Guide to South America, a feeling of sadness that I'm past the point in my life where I'm unencumbered by things and can take off for a two-year trek with just what fits in my backpack, a feeling of regret that I didn't run off to another continent when I could have, a feeling of guilt for overconsumption, a feeling of relief for having health insurance, a feeling of pride that I did take a year off the beaten path in my twenties, a feeling of familiarity of being trapped in another country with not enough of the local currency, a desire to make travel somehow more meaningful and less diversionary in my life.

Like I said, excellent book.