Paperback Love and Then Some

I have decided that the summer does indeed go by fast. But also, I'm just about ready to start the new life with my crimson-red stethoscope.

Books are lovely things, and I happily spent nearly four hours in Chapters (Barnes & Noble's, Canadian Edition, for all my American peeps) yesterday, when I was in Ottawa, reading the backs of a bjillion novels on the fiction floor and trying to resist the urge to buy out the whole store, which is actually really hard. In order to achieve this last, I found that by jotting down the titles and authors of books I wanted to read in my handy notebook, I was more easily able to release the slew of them from between my fingers and slip them back onto their shelves, so that they might beckon to another, less cheap book-lover. I must admit that the 30% price differential between buying books in the U.S. and Canada, when the Canadian dollar is practically par, just makes me absolutely livid. Anyhow, at the end of it, I was still suckered in by immediacy, purchasing 3 books after reading the first chapter of each to ensure that I would not regret spending a small fortune. I bought Orhan Pamuk's The White Castle, which is fabulous (so far anyway), as well as some light summer reading for Mexico (I leave in 2 days!) -namely, Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella and Me and Mr. Darcy by Alexandra Potter. Don't worry, there is also some Sylvia Plath (The Bell Jar) and Ethan Canin (America America) on my reading list... it's unfortunate that proper literature must cost a proper dime. But well, proper literature all the time just wouldn't be proper either (I really want to read The Virgin's Lover by the beezys' beloved Philippa Gregory).

I must confess though, I did not travel all the way to Ottawa just to peruse through paperbacks (this took place during a long bout of rain) -and earlier, I had gone with my sister and her British friend to visit the Parliament buildings, go up the Peace Tower, walk some ways along the Rideau Canal and Sparks Street, and at long last, eat noodles from a box (just like in the movies!). A pleasant day trip, really. Conked out easy when I came home that night too.

It's been nice catching up with old friends after a long time -did a bit more of that today and have been doing it a bit more each week this summer (or at least this past week) -it's comforting and lovely to be able to pick up right where you left off and forget about all the months and years that passed in between, talking about adventure, great love, and personal discovery instead. Ah, well.

Mexico is just two days away -and I've heard the Mayan Riviera is supposed to be really amazing. Psyched.