Literary Lemming

Yep. That's me. I have officially dubbed myself a literary lemming. I enjoy reading, but I'm not one of those people who walks through Barnes and Noble and buys a random book from the shelf. The ones I read are national best sellers, talked about in book clubs, referred to be my my devout reading friends, mentioned on Oprah, and apparently have movies being made after them.

I know it sounds like Junior High, but I read what all the cool readers are reading. I've decided that my lemming ways are a protective device for not wasting precious time. Many times after a TV show or movie, I think to myself "well, there's 2 hours of my life I'll never get back"... I feel the same way about a mediocre book. So in all reality, I take others opinions and reviews to heart.

This book, "The Help", is one of those books referred to me by friends, is everywhere I look, a national best seller. So check, check and check... yep, I can now read it :). I bought it at Costco on a Wednesday, started it on Friday and finished it a few days later (I would have read it straight through if my life permitted it). It was divine, emotional, beautifully written... life changing really. I fell in love with the characters, the message. It was a difficult book to put down. I found myself waking up at 4:30 one morning just so I could figure out what Hilly was going to do next. There were moments when I laughed out loud, many moments when my heart broke, moments when I wanted to do something to change the world. That was my gauge for how good this book really was... it made me feel, think. Loved it.

I finished it just 2 days ago... the same day the movie debuted. I was anxious to go and meet these characters I had fallen in love with (and hoped that the movie would do them justice... the way my mind did). I went and saw the movie last night with my friend Chelsea and LOVED it. The characters were perfect. The parts of the book they highlighted in the movie were spot on. I never cried once while reading the book, but boy did I bawl during this movie. It was an emotional film and very tastefully done.

There were people walking out of the theater with tissues in their hands, red rings around their eyes, and looks of change in their faces. I decided that those were the people who had read the book... who have come to love these characters in each of the book's 520 pages. There were those who didn't even seemed phased by what they just saw... they either hadn't read the book, or they had their heart removed prior to the show.

In all of my blabbering, my final conclusion is this: I'm glad I followed the crowd and read the book and then followed that same crowd all the way to the movies. I guess it's okay to be a lemming sometimes.