I can’t get enough water. Salt, lake, or river in mud, water. These days I need to drink loads of it, stand by it, stare at it, jump into it, sink.
Or try not to sink, rather, being the well-below-average swimmer I am. Side-stroker, dog-paddler extraordinaire.
It’s as though water has been rationed all my life and only now can I finally, finally, have all the water I want, whenever I want it. Ice. Or ice cold. No lemon. And no cucumber, either — what’s with the cucumber you find in water at the gym or in a salon? Plain old-fashioned icy water, please.
If I leave the house and drive away and realize I’ve forgotten my water, I will turn around the drive back to get it.
In other news, I just finished my first Benjamin Black book — CHRISTINE FALLS — while in the bathtub (of course!) and have moved right on to the second book in the series, THE SILVER SWAN.
I don’t read much crime or mystery, but these are so beautifully rendered (literary fiction gone evil and dark) and I can’t resist the pathologist Quirke or the constant mists and rain of 1950’s Dublin.
After this, I swear I’m moving on. Maybe.
.
Here’s what’s in my next-up stack:
Amor Towles RULES OF CIVILITY
Gillian Flynn SHARP OBJECTS
Maeve Binchy (RIP Maeve) EVENING CLASS
Rohinton Mistry A FINE BALANCE
Here’s to this stack of books, a comfy chair on the patio (right after the sun has gone down) and a tall, sweaty glass of ice water.
No cucumber.
Teri Carter's Library 
Yay for a stack of books – the best sight ever to me! Teri, were you the one recommending people read the Descendants? (Maybe it was Wry.) I went to get it and Barnes and Noble only carried the movie cover version! The horror! I had to have them order in a different edition. But at least the lady didn’t give me a funny look when I told her I don’t buy books with the movie covers on them.
As I read back on this post, it makes no sense. Does this mean summer is ending???
Anyhoo …. I LOVED The Descendants (as did my husband) and I, too, hate to buy a book with the movie cover!! Hahaha. Though I admit that my copy of The Descendants has George Clooney on it —– I was in a hurry. (that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it)
I can relate, totally. Just the sight of water sends my pulse racing.
I haven’t gotten much reading done lately on account of these damn kids again but I’m trying. Lord, am I trying.
I am water obsessed, MSB. And thank you, you got me swimming this summer!!
How can I possibly do all this reading? No kids at home. I swear that’s true. That anyone with small kids (or even teenagers, really) can read any book inside of a month, is a spectacular accomplishment.
(shhhhhh…. here’s to school starting.)
I felt like such a traitor today–I met with some friends and listened to them discuss their recent reads and I was so impatient and my TBR is SOOOO tall that I burst out, “Oh, just tell me the twist already! I may never get to read it!!” Gah.
Hope JoJo is enjoying the water as much as her mum.
I took JoJo to the beach yesterday. The little missy who almost drowned in July now runs like mad right into every huge wave she sees —- makes a mama so nervous!!
Where I lived before, I had views of the lake/river at sunset. Where I am now, I am a short walk from the actual lake — but the location is much better for watching sunrises. And so far I have not been industrious enough to wake up that early.
But in just the last three days, I walked down to the lake and took in how very different the skyline and water looks in different weather and light. It’s amazing. I might have to start documenting it daily, like how my grandfather (whom I never met) would climb up a small mountain and photograph his Pennsylvania coal mining town once a season, every season, year after year after year.
Your comment, Laura, reminds of something a psychic told me 20 years ago. “You need to spend more time around water,” she said. “Water will always be your cure.”
I LOVE the idea of you documenting how the water and skyline look every season. I knew a woman (before cell phones) who carried her big camera with her everyday for a year and took a photo of something “meaningful.” It could be a flower or a friend or a train ….. it was a way, she said, of remembering how much she had to be thankful for in a year.
i think this water thing is a sign you’re on to something. something deep and good and replenishing. drink it up.
i’m a water baby. for three days now, i’ve been singing the lyrics, “that’s my daughter in the water, everything she knows i taught her.”
Your comment, Josephine, reminds me of this: A woman really into astrology said, “You’re a Leo, a fire sign. You need all the water you can get to keep from exploding.”
Paradise is a comfortable seat facing a large body of water, a large hot cup of coffee, two dogs at your feet and a stack of great books. On Sundays, throw in the NYT’s. Oh, and yes, Teri to debate what it all means. . . . . . .
No Gualala this year. 😦 I miss that giant patio overlooking the Pacific. And how are we going to determine who’s Scrabble Champion for 2012. A travesty this is!!
Ha! After reading the first part, I thought Christine Falls was the noun “falls” not the verb, leading to the Swan book and you reading in the bathtub, and I can’t help thinking what a great short story that would be, a woman’s obsession with water and the reasons for it.
Lyra!!! I hadn’t even thought of the “falls” or “swan” connection in this post. I wrote it fast —– maybe that’s the key to writing, period. Write fast. Find out later what you were really thinking.
This post made me think of that Melissa Etheridge song – “Someone bring me some water” and it’s making me miss the lake at the cottage.
I had a bad car accident with that song on the radio. I love that album, but every time I hear that song I picture spinning and spinning, and how lucky I was.
Oh God. I’m like that about another song – not a car accident, a different kind of accident.
I’ll admit to a bit of envy over the variety in your TBR stack. I’m deep inside the brainchildren of Joyce Carol Oates and dear lord are they taking me over. I’ve taken to writing the adverb at the beginning of sentences, in her honor.
Your post makes me want to pick up all the characters in my WIP and pluck them down on the beach somewhere.