Lillies

Lillies waiting for me as I come home to Are in Tehran...

In between novels

When you meet your new friends all the weight is in your right hand. Page by page, as your new friends grow into old and beloved friends, this weight steadily shifts to your left hand. With the pack of pages in the right hand becoming thinner, my reading pace becomes slower.

I've become so involved with some of the hero's and heroine's that i don't like the idea of saying goodbye to them yet. Sure, i want to know the rest of the story, but nearing the last page, a goodbye, always gives me mixed feelings.

Hurray for the saga's! Knowing that the story continues in a new novel, reuniting with old friends, eases the sorrow. (I think we have one more Harry Potter to come) Until you get to the end of the saga. I've spent about four thousand pages with Jamie and Claire. The end was sweet; satisfying, but there's always room for more. There's no more coming, but i can always visit my friends if i want. I keep my books, my friends, as treasures. (Of course, I have my own Jamie now)

What happened to Sugar after the last page of the Crimson Petal and the white, nobody knows. Not even the author of her story, as he so claims in one of his spin-offs. Even though he warned me at the start of the book, i kept hoping for a glimpse of my heroine.

Oh well, a novel is an up rounded story. A life time, not a life. People come and people go, their stories with them. You share in an adventure, emotional and psychological development. And when the time is there, you go your own way. I feel a sense of gratitude for knowing about a part of that life, as it is with my friends in real life.

I can never start immediately with reading a new novel, with new characters, new potential friends. I have to get used to the new writing style of a different author and a new setting. When i start a new book too shortly after the last one, i keep looking of the same ambiance, looking for my friends. You could see that it feels a little bit like a betrayal to my old friends, too.

Closing a book after the last page, is like leaving your holiday destination. It is out of sight, there are no new encounters, but it is still in your veins. And it takes some time to wear off that feeling of connection. You try to hold on to the joy you experienced, the flavours and the scenes and scenery. Sometimes it keeps feeding your thoughts long after you've left or finished reading. You could always go back, but you seldom do.

There is a time for everything. You cherish it all and make it yours, until it is time for the next thing on your path. At this moment I am in between novels (what a nice metaphor again) and suffering from a severe cold, embracing both. Is this my fever talking?

Great Reads

Games

I keep track on the headlines on Iran with the international news stations. Not a day goes by that Iran is not in the news. Tension rising up and down, never a dull day you would say.

However, if you don't make an effort of keeping track, you will not notice anything in Iran's daily life. As westerners, we are more cautious and think about what might happen. At the same time, we try not to let those thoughts influence our life in Iran.

I guess it's worse not being in Iran, but still reading about it. And for the laste two weeks, new headlines appeared every few hours. Normally i would just go out in Tehran and feel that everything is ok. Can't do that security sense check right now.

But even with the sailor's drama making Iran hot news, i have no feeling of fear that anything bad will happen. Of course, i have to be realistic, and i am not a fortune teller either, but i feel that things will be ok. Noting, that I can only sense for our own situation.

For those of you that have no clue on what i'm talking about, i advise you to read the Iran files. No, just kidding. Just read the article behind the link below. It will give you a briefing on what's going on and what might happen, without getting into all the details. What an interesting game we are playing here...

Al Jazeera headline: Iran strikes blow in propagande war