*Breathing Books*

There is something to be said about fresh air after a long period of stale, smoky, over-breathed, and over-filtered oxygen. You hear it all the time, ‘’That was a breath of fresh air.’’ ‘’Her honesty was certainly a breath of fresh air.’’ ‘’Seeing him was like coming up for air after years under water.’’ Good, crisp air is a cure for nausea, dizziness, headache, nose ache (being a habitual recipient of nosebleeds, I’d know,) and countless mental maladies. The feeling of breathing clear air is so wonderful that it is now as much a metaphor as an actual action. With this introduction, I can easily take one of two trails in today’s entry: the literal, and the metaphorical. I’m choosing the second because finally, after a month of breathing backseat Volkswagen without AC air, I stepped outside; I read a novel.
If you weren’t aware of my situation, namely Bolivia, this wouldn’t surprise you. I am, or was, a certifiable bookworm. Books were my food. In truth, I probably read more than ate. Since coming here however, I’ve read only three and a half books in English. I brought three books with me: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (a comical account of the original ‘’dumb blonde,’’) Beauty (a comfort book; my favorite retelling of ‘’Beauty and the Beast,’’) and The Garden of Eden (the half that I couldn’t finish.) I tried to pace myself with these; even so, they were finished within the first two weeks. This is how I turned to another form of entertainment: television.
It began innocently enough… Oh, I wonder how many channels there are. Oh, it’s Legally Blonde in Spanish! …then morphed into something else… Oh, dinner time already? But I just got back from school! Oh, I just watched three shows and can’t remember the plot to any of them! My rapid addiction was understandable I suppose. I was a TV innocent, once content to watch a movie on the weekend or a re-run of M*A*S*H* on a Thursday night. Moving into a house with six televisions and cable really broadsided me and glued me to the tube. I realized how wrong this was after watching five shows in one night, switching channels during commercial breaks so I could watch Monk and Friends in the same time slot. Disgusting, right? It was time for a change!
In my Spanish class populated by fellow exchange students, I mentioned my need of books. Hallelujah and Thank the Heavens, one girl agreed with me! Even better, she had brought a couple of books in English and we arranged a trade. I leant her Beauty in exchange for My Sister’s Keeper and Kaffir Boy. I started with My Sister’s Keeper that afternoon, right after my Spanish class. It was beautiful. I found another Jodi Picoult fan in South America! In my excitement, I couldn’t pace myself; I finished My Sister’s Keeper the next day. The book, like most of Picoult’s, was fantastic, but even better was the feeling of reading again. I still watched one of my favorite shows, but I read during the commercial breaks. An hour or two later I turned on the TV again, but found my favorite detective show, Crossing Jordan, wasn’t nearly as gripping, colorful, or emotionally attached to me as was Anna’s court case for not being her sister’s keeper. When this thought floated through my head a minute into the show, I turned it off and read for an hour or two more.
Curiously enough, it’s been two days since I read the novel, and I still haven’t begun Kaffir Boy. I browsed through a handful of short stories provided by my English teacher, but my need for a novel seems to have been satisfied for the time being. I never thought that would happen to me in one hundred thousand years, but look at that. People change I guess. Not to say that I’m not still a written-word addict, because I am, but I no longer feel naked without a page between my fingers. I think it is because I live so much in my notebooks and journals that I’m too busy drawing or writing my own life, to read about others’. But have no fear; the bookish Erika you all know and hopefully love will probably return to that position after her good healthy dose of South America. The air is different here, it’s true, but I can still breathe. I’ve acclimated.


Mentioned Works and Shows in Order of Appearance

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
By Anita Loos.

Beauty
By Robin McKinley

The Garden of Eden
By Ernest Hemingway

Legally Blonde (film)
I’m not sure who the director is, but Reese Witherspoon leads.

M*A*S*H* (TV)
Old TV show that you should really watch a season or two of.


Monk (TV)
On the Hallmark Channel.

Friends (TV)
On the WB.

My Sister’s Keeper
By Jodi Picoult

Kaffir Boy
By Mark Mathabane

Crossing Jordan (TV)
On the Hallmark Channel.