When it aches, just let me read.

Like most women, I suffer from menstrual cramps almost every month. Today, I did, but I’m not going to bore you whining about the agony. Your time is too precious for that – so is mine.

What surprised me were my book choices when I was in pain: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum and Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. I’m presently enjoying an indefinite leave of absence so that explains why I have plenty of time to read.

I’m not completely a bum, we’ve launched a new travel website islandtrotters.com and revitalized our cost trivia site expensively.org. These babies, always hungry for content, are keeping me pretty preoccupied. Check them out when you have time. They’re amusing – as I would like to hope.

Have you chanced upon those books I mentioned earlier? If you have little kids around who won’t rest unless you tell them an amazing story, you had better read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz to them. No, don’t read it to them, act it out! As I was reading this Children’s classics, I was imagining the face of my nephew as well as his million questions. Oh, I have a niece, too. Wait, I have two nephews and a niece. You’d love them – they’re smart kids. Really.

I’d be lying if I say I read it because of these dear kids. I love stories – for children or for whoever. There’s magnet particularly in manifestly unreal tales and Dorothy’s odd acquaintances will undoubtedly pique any child’s curiosity. It’s too early to reclaim my childhood – I’m not too far from it.

Meanwhile, Catcher in the Rye seems to have the opposite spirit of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. It’s filled with teen angst, drama, and believe it or not, humor. I haven’t finished it because the online copy was sloppy  – you expect it so when it’s free.  Nonetheless, I find it funny and truthful. These lines, especially:

 “Do you feel absolutely no concern for your future, boy?” 

“Oh, I feel some concern for my future, all right. Sure, sure, I do. But not too much I guess.”

“You will,” old Spencer said. “You will, boy. You will when it’s too late.” 

 I didn’t like hearing him say that. It made me sound dead or something.

“What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it.”

 What about you? What have you read lately?