Reading is Fun(damental)

I hurried to read the remaining pages of Barbara Kingsolver's book, Flight Behavior, before library doors opened at 10:00 Monday morning.  I wanted to finish the book and return it to avoid the fine. 

Though filled with more information than I really wanted to know about Monarch butterflies and global warming, it was written with typical Kingsolver descriptive skill and wit--lines such as these:

I thought everything in the world was already discovered.  Already in my books.  A lot of dead stuff that put me to sleep.  (Then came the day) I understood the world is still living.

Cordie had been good through most of supper, if lifting her shirt and playing with her navel counted as being good.  And squeezing boiled potatoes in her fists, watching white potato mash squirt out between her fingers.  "Good" was a euphemism for quiet.

Cub was not going to put a lot of energy into tact....

There is no life raft; you're just freaking swimming all the time.

At some point in the evening Dellarobia had stopped being amazed that Ovid had turned into someone new, and understood he had become himself, in the presence of his wife.  With the sense of a great weight settling, she recognized marriage.

and SO many more!

...I didn't read as many books as I hoped to read this year.

Maybe in 2013?...
How about YOU?  Any "must read" titles to pass along?