happy places

I have a new happy place.

Of course, I have many of these. I mean, the old ones haven't given out on me or anything. The pick-up lane at Ray Miller Elementary is one. (Chaotic number of times I get in and out of the car in any one day aside, I love it when it's time to pick up my chilren). My bed at night is another, especially if the day has been especially long or especially frustrating or just especially productive. My car, because ever since the day Felicity got her license and I was all, "The Nickerson girls have power," my car has felt like this incredibly freeing, almost magical escape. I always think, "I could keep driving right now instead of going to work." It's sort of like the car is my own universe where I make all the decisions about temperature, music, snacks...How did I get off on that? Oh, right,. Happy places.

Well, my new happy place is Goodreads. I put out a question on twitter one day asking if goodreads was a good choice for online book-y communities, and the comments I got were all positive. So I joined.

Now going to my goodreads account is like walking into one of those really big and glorious personal libraries like they have in old estates or, you know, Beauty and the Beast, where you have to have a ladder on rollers to reach everything. It's a place where I get to think about books, talk about books, and - oh joy - look at books. I. Love. It.

Now, I do struggle with the rating system. It bothers me that someone might freak out when they discover something I do or do not like. I'll just have to assume that everyone knows there's a ton of stuff that goes into the reading experience and why any one book does or doesn't resonate. Kind of like one woman's really strong perfume or the noisy people behind you can determine how much you enjoy a movie. It's like that with books. We bring baggage to books, preconceptions, genre-preferences - all that. And it makes the "I really liked it, I didn't like it, it was okay" system really inadequate.

Anyway, I could spend several hours a day on goodreads right now just adjusting the stars and reviews for the books I have already entered there. And I've only just begun. Don't even get me started on how much I love having a virtual nest in which I can list all the books I carry from room to room with me as they wait their turn to be devoured. That part's really cool too.