Is it getting hot in here?

My daughter Pookie works in a bookstore and she has the wonderful perk of being able to borrow books as long as she returns them in sellable condition.

Going back to the Stick that was passed to me and the first question about Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, I was curious and asked Pookie to borrow it for me.

She brought it home this afternoon and I couched myself and began to read until I finished it.

I didn't just read it, I devoured it, absorbing it as fast as I could. As I read I imagined Mr. Bradbury writing it with passion, trying to get the words out as fast as he could, the words pouring out of him in a torrent.

At the end of the book was an interview and the way he described writing this book was exactly like I imagined.

Now I feel like I can answer the first question in the Stick.

You are stuck inside Fahrenheit 451, which book do you want to be?

I can't pick just one book. All the books I have read are now part of me. From the books of the Bible, Ruth and Job and the Gospels to J.R.R. Tolkien's Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, from C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia to Louisa May Alcott's Little Women.

I have parts of Old Yeller which I read over and over as a kid. I have parts of Grimms Fairy Tales and Mother Goose. I even have parts of books that I read to my children, Berenstein Bears and Where the Wild Things Are.
There are books that touch us deeply like Go Ask Alice an Anonymous Diary of a teenage girl, which I think every parent should read.

There are classics that I have enjoyed from Charles Dickens to Edgar Allen Poe. I have parts of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Thrillers, Horror, Love, Romance, and even Religious and Self Help Books.

There are books that I have read that I found mundane, and books I started reading that just didn't grab me and I put them down after a few pages.

There are books I took my time with enjoying the words washing over me, the story being absorbed into me. There are other books that I just couldn't put down and couldn't wait to get back to. There are books that I have read that taught me something new, or made me want to experience something new. There are books that I have read that made me laugh out loud, like A Walk In The Woods by Bill Bryson.

When I read, I see the characters, I feel what they are feeling, they become a part of me, so how could I be just one book when I have so many parts of so many books as a part of me?