Comforting Things

I just finished reread the first book in my favorite series for about the twenty-seventh time. In the Garden of Iden, by Kage Baker, is the flagship novel of a beautiful series (The Company) about time travel, immortality, politics, religion, corruption, ethics, and, of course, contains more than a healthy smattering of romance.

I'm a total fangirl.

I first read the first book some six, seven years ago, or thereabouts, and it doesn't matter how many times I've read it (about twenty-seven) or how much of it I have memorized (I once recited the whole first chapter for a project in my freshman English class), every time I go back through it is like the first time.

I laugh. I cry. I fall in love. My heart gets broken. I sit on the edge of my seat, begging the love interest, "No! Don't do it! Don't be a dumbass, Nicholas Harpole, you glorious douchebag!" and he does it anyway and I cringe every single time.

The "father" character makes me roll my eyes as only a chronically-sarcastic absentee-father-who-legitimately-cares-but-can't-for-the-eternal-life-of-him-figure-it-out-to-express-it can.

The "older-sister/single-minded-matron" character has me sighing in exasperation every time she goes off on a tangent.

When Mendoza, the protagonist, falls in love for the first time in her life, my heart aches with happiness for her, and breaks in grief as does hers at the end.

I get so drawn into the story, I forget that I need to eat, that I need to sleep until I pass out holding the pages open. I forget that I have a job to go to and a family to talk to and a house to keep and friends to be there for. I forget everything except the words on the page, the immortal characters immortalized further by the ink in which they were printed. I forget everything except that the words are beautiful and the wisdom therein has yet to fail me. "Arrows you may dodge and fever you may antibody for, but mortal grief is a misfortune you cannot escape." (pg 253)

And I will gladly grieve for these characters again as I embark on yet another quest through the pages of this universe.

There are twelve books in this series, and every single one of them can get me this riled up.

Every.

Single.

One.

There's just something so comforting, so natural about rereading a good book. A really good story, in my opinion, is one that can draw you in time and again and still have you riveted like it's your first time reading anything ever.

It's magical.

So I spent yesterday reading my beloved book, and finished it today after work when I should have been washing the dishes or cleaning my room, and I slept a glorious thirteen hours last night and woke up feeling refreshed and alive for the first time in a week and a half, and maybe longer.

I don't know. It's been a while since I read this series last. I go a little crazy without it.