Here we go...

It's about time, really. I think you'll agree. For many weeks and months I have been asking myself the same question (usually on a Monday morning circa 0845): why did I ever decide to become an English teacher? Well, this morning I happened upon the answer. Because I have always been in love with books.

Should that be past tense? No. But from September '06 until January 26th '07, I definitley lost sight of what was important to me. That's putting it somewhat lightly. What meant the whole world to me, is more accurate. It's not the sense of promise one can find in a giant bookshop, it's not the enticing aroma of that first black coffee (with a separate pot of cream) and it's certainly not the provocative tease of the unspoiled cover; the lure of literature is simple. It's the possibility.

Yesterday morning (Saturday 28th January 2007), I sat for three hours in a small coffee shop, reading. Just reading. Not thinking, not looking, not procrastinating, not wondering, not considering, not entertaining, just reading. Ladies and gentlemen, it was wonderful.

Do not continue to read if this romantic waffle begins to irritate, for I make absolutely no apology and accept no responsibility for your resentment. For three hours yesterday morning, I was happy.

One might wonder, how can one book, one morning spent lost in another's story, have this effect on someone? To this, I have no answer. Some may consider it tragic; has she never been in love? Well, no, but I'm pretty certain that in this case such detail is irrelevant. Does she have no family? Is she caught in the tempest of denial and reaching for the candle of escapism? Is this an act of soul searching or surrender to some or other force beyond her control? Is she simply staring down the barrel of insanity? These things are irrelevant, each and every one, and I accept none of such. Why must there be a cause and effect? Is this what we are all working towards?

I digress.

The beauty of a book, the power of existing in someone else's ideas for three hours on a Saturday morning, is invaluable to me.