Have a happy Monday with...a good book

When I was a waitress, I used to love Mondays.  Monday meant the restaurant was closed and I had one full, glorious day off; I could catch up on sleep, tidy up my apartment, go shopping, read a book, do whatever I wanted.  But since my career goals took me away from restaurants and into the 9-to-5 grind, I've come to dislike Mondays as much as anyone.

But this blog isn't about what sucks, it's about being healthy and part of being emotionally healthy (happy healthy) is to find the things in life that make me happy.  So to counteract the Monday blues, each week I'm going to post about something that makes me happy.  Whether big or small, there are so many wonderful things in my life that make me happy but sometimes I need to slow down and actually focus on those things, which is what I'm going to do here.

For the inaugural Happy Monday, I'm going to start with books.  (Surprise, surprise.)

I love reading and I love books.  I've read a lot of books, across many genres, my many authors.  I have my favourites (Reginald Hill, Terry Pratchett) and I have my must-read lists (Never Let Me Go, V for Vendetta) and I have no problem indulging in a guilty pleasure read every now and then (whatever is offered for free for my Kobo), but every so often I come across a book that stays with me; a book that I didn't want to end, because the story was just so good I wanted it to keep going, forever and ever; a book that I want to read again and again, but don't want to read again because I'm still enjoying it two years later.

The book in question?  The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova.

It's been about two years since I finished it and I think about it constantly.  It is a beautifully written story spanning three generations and takes you across Eastern Europe on a hunt for Dracula.  Oh, and there's a love story in there too.  It's everything Twilight wants to be but is not.*   This book is the perfect mash-up of literary and genre fiction and if you haven't yet read it, GO READ IT NOW.  RIGHT NOW!  GO!

Realizing now how much I still think about this book makes me aware of how happy it made me when I read it and I think it's time to pick it up again, because it makes me so very happy.


*I will respect your right to love Twilight, as long as you respect my right to mock it relentlessly.