I am reading a book I can't put down. It captivated me since the moment I saw it. The title, the back cover that told me briefly what the book is about was attractive. I like to read but I seldom find something that makes me want to devour the book. With this book, I'd take a last look at a sentence before I closed it and couldn't wait to get back to it to find out more. As the first chapters went by and a bit of predictability settled in, I started to feel that I didn't like everything Liz Murray wrote, there were entire pages I would have removed if I had written the book. And I got to spots where I felt I could take it or leave it and very tempted to leave it and pick up another book. I stuck with it and after the rough spots found myself again interested in the essence of what she wrote, her experience, her struggle, her success and failure and the style in which she tells the story so nicely. It got me thinking how a book is like a brand new relationship. Sometimes picked because we are in need of something “new”. Sometimes the cover is so very deceiving and sometimes it takes a while to get into it.
Those first few captivating pages when we discover a new friend and find their company interesting, enchanting. Can't wait to get more, and it is hard to part until the next time. But then after we get to know them better, there are pages we discover are not to our liking. Sometimes we find out that the first pages, the initial stages were nothing but a cover to lure attention. Other times, we find out that as a whole we like it even if there are a few parts, a few pages and even a whole chapter we can do without. I usually try to finish what I start. I don't give up too quickly. There are many books I have read and gotten to the end realizing it was a complete waste of time. Others I have enjoyed page after page and yet others, like this one, might test my interest for a while but in the end they end up being some of the better books I have read. A bad book unlike a relationship is nothing more than a waste of time that is stored away in the attic. No harm done. It's not always easy to find a good book or a good friend by the cover but sometimes that is all we have to go by. Sometimes we get lucky.