books, books, books...

I just finished my last deadline story.  Well, almost.  It's in the hands of someone to read over one last time, but pretty much done.  Now I can read like crazy.  My vacation has begun and I don't have many plans this holiday season.  So I can curl up in front of my fireplace with a blanket, hot chocolate and lots of books. I've got a pile from the library I need to get through and a few books I purchased that I haven't gotten to yet.  And over the past two weeks, I've found out that I've won a few different books from various sites like Book Hounds, Bitten By Books, and My Overstuffed Bookshelf (I know I'm forgetting a site and I totally apologize!  My mind has ceased to work!). 

Is there anything better than books and getting lost in reading?  I love writing and creating my own worlds and characters, but there is something so perfect about a good book.

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Today's Reverb 10 prompt:

December 23 – New Name. Let’s meet again, for the first time. If you could introduce yourself to strangers by another name for just one day, what would it be and why? (Author: Becca Wilcott)

It's such a funny thing because for most of my young life into my late teens, I wished with all my might for a different name.  There were a lot of girls my age with my name and definitely not with the spelling I used.  My mother's explanation that both my sister and I were named after a Jane Austen characters (see was obsessed with Jane Austen, which is why I probably am too) didn't mean much to me.  After all, my sister's name was normal and there were plenty of those brushes-with-insert-name for her.  Not so much for me.  And that damn lady on Romper Room never saw me in her magic mirror.  Jens and Michelles and Amys, yeah, but never me. 

My name was the bane of my existence.  And then I don't know what happened.  It stopped being an issue.  I stopped wishing my name were different and came to love my name.  It's a part of who I am.  It's the first word I think of to describe myself.   Maybe I'm just a bi-polar name person, swinging from hate to love, but I wouldn't change my name.  I wouldn't want a different name for a day.  A different job?  A different perspective?  Sure, but I'm keeping my name.