Day 3 | A Book I Love

My first unbridled love affair with a book burst forth while I was spending a summer in New Hampshire.

When I wasn't working, you could find me on my towel on a number of aging, mossy docks that jutted into Squam Lake like staccato notes in a watery song.

I was typically in a bikini-clad, closed-eye state with my headphones in, Hawaiian Tropic on, and defenses down.

During one of my shifts, in-between clients, I was perusing Amazon.com for the perfect summer read. And when I locked eyes with Mona Lisa, it was over. It was the first and only time love at first sight would weave its spell around my perpetually-skeptical heart. I read the teaser on the jacket, but mostly out of habit. Any further convincing was unnecessary. I could tell instantly that the story was one of history, of codes & riddles (love!), of a mild romance that served more as a sweet footnote throughout some of the more intense parts of the book.

I needed to hold it in my hands. To smell the pages as I resist the lustful urge to leap forward into the next chapters to see if I had correctly deciphered the ancient puzzles; to stamp my imagination's passport as it discovers illuminated fountains and hand-chiseled statues.

I am grateful to Dan Brown for the experience of a lifetime...via Professor Robert Langdon.