Tom Dolby kept me up all night.

One of the great things about vacation is the ability to do things that you rarely get to do normally.  For me, that's stay up until the wee hours of the morning reading a book.

There's an entire shelf in my bookcase at home filled with unread books. And it's not a neat shelf, as there are too many books crammed into the space.

Packing for Panama, I grabbed five books.  I figured with a week on the beach and then a few days of quiet in the mountain, that I would probably go through five.

I went through three of them at the beach, including one that I had previously read (obviously, it didn't get filed on the proper shelf).

On my last night in Panama, we went to bed early -- around 9:30. Andy was watching a film on his iPad, so I grabbed Tom Dolby's The Sixth Form. It's a coming of age story set in a boarding school in Massachusetts.  I won't go into details about the story, but you can find out more here. 

 
 
 The characters drew me in and I kept reading and reading and reading. There was no clock in the room and my iPhone, which I use as a watch, had been stored away for the past week and a half. 

I ended up finishing the book in one sitting -- I can't remember the last time I even did that!! After getting up to use the bathroom and turn off the light, I managed to see Andy's watch:  1 a.m.!!!

When I read a good book, one that lets me escape to another place for a few hours, I feel a sense of relaxation. Actually, it feels like I had been on vacation.

That's what I felt like, laying in bed in the middle of the night. Unfortunately, the unfamiliar creatures of the rain forest where we were staying kept me awake for an undetermined amount of time. But the great feeling of escape was well worth the sleeplessness.

Comments

[Brent]

Yes, Tom has that affect on me, too. Have you read his debut, The Trouble Boy? IT's my favorite. :) And his YA series, Secret Society, is pretty fab, too.

[Alan]

I've got to check out his work - there is no greater joy than getting lost in a good book.