Make New Friends.......

Make new friends,
but keep the old.
One is silver,
the other is gold.

I was never much of a girl scout but this scouting song describes so perfectly how I feel about books. Some books are my oldest friends – old, worn, dog-eared. The books I read over and over despite the fact that I know every word. I have discovered so much about them – character inconsistencies and plot loopholes – but I love them despite their flaws and in some cases because of them. New things always exist to be discovered between the covers with each reading – not because the book has changed but because I have.

Ahhh…..but the trill of a new book, the seduction of a new story. Will I love it or hate it? In time will it earn space on the treasured friends shelf or will it be only remembered with vague disappointment and “what could have been”? Who among us hasn’t stayed up all night to devour a new book – unwilling to put it down until the last plot twist is discovered, the last character dynamic unveiled? That is the passion of a new friend – the absorption that comes with unfamiliarity.

The balance of new and old – the passion of discovering new friends (and new books) and the comfort and serenity of our treasured old friends (and old books) – is what makes reading so much fun.