I love to drive, especially if I’m on a summer trip heading to some beautiful place in the Northwest. Though I go with a group, I'm generally driving alone when I do these long trips so I like to set myself up in my own little comfy world. I'll have a cooler for some water and sandwiches, tasty snacks and plenty of good music on my IPod. Of course, once I discovered the joy of listening to audio books while driving, I quickly became addicted.
There were, however, a few lessons learned along the way.
The first lesson came while I was driving home from Montana on a particularly fast curvy section of I-90, just before the Columbia River. Near the end of the book I was listening to, the mother dies. Most friends know that I cry easily at movies, so it should come as no surprise that tears were streaming down my face. This made it somewhat difficult to see the road. Not a good thing but I survived.
At a rest stop, I put in the next book. I was already eight and a half hours into the ten hour trip home and I was a bit tired. How was I to know that shortly into the book, a couple would be having an intimate encounter for a chapter and a half? Apparently I must have gotten a little into it because the next thing I knew I was doing 90 mph over a mountain pass. Again, not a good thing. At least I noticed before anyone else did. Can you imagine trying to explain to a trooper that my excessive speed was the fault of my audio book’s intense sex scene? Oh my!
My last lesson came one December when I listened to The Angel’s Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Dark is how I would describe that book. Even the ending is strange and sinister. I had enjoyed and even liked his other book, The Shadow of the Wind. It was also somewhat dark but at least it ended with a bit of hope. Winter here is dark enough. Listening to this coming into the holidays was just way too bleak and gloomy for me.
I was a little slow but I finally learned that I’m very affected by what I listen to when I drive. I know not to choose books that are really dark, where the mother dies and where there are detailed sex scenes. Or, if listening to the latter type, at least I know to watch my speed and close my windows if I'm stopped at a streetlight....
One "perfect for the car" book I’ve listened to is The Splendor of Silence by Indu Sundaresan. The setting is early 1940’s India and, though the story is a bit of a stretch at times, it caught my imagination. It is true that I have rightly been accused of being a hopeless romantic, but I couldn't help myself with this book. It has intrigue, romance, adventure, social unrest and beautiful scenery. The wintry Northwest sky outside my car may have been a mix of grayish blue and green, but all I saw were the rich gold and red tones of India. One minute, I was flying across the desert on a horse; another I was trudging through a deep jungle. I could smell the heady spices of the country and the food and I fell in love. It was a magical world that enchanted me. Interestingly, I did eat a fair amount of Indian food during that time too…
I feel like it's time to be enchanted again. After all, December is the month for magic. And perhaps, a little vegetable korma on my way home from the library wouldn’t be a bad idea either…
Ella
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