Every now and then I come across a book that is so good it makes following a normal routine difficult.    Like I start thinking, “Please, I can too walk and read at the same time!”   Or do dishes and read, shower and read, whatever.   The last book – or books – that had that effect on me were “The Hunger Games” and its’ sequel “Catching Fire”.  (The third, “Mockingjay” was good, but not ‘I can’t put it down’ good.)

I’ve found another one.   “A Discovery of Witches” by Deborah Harkness is so well written and compelling that I am both jealous and captivated.    It’s a witch/vampire/daemon story for grown-ups, with history, science, alchemy, anatomy and physics thrown in for good measure and in such a masterful way that it only adds to and never detracts from the suspense and drama of the story.

I was never a fan of vampire stories in years past.   One of the very few books in my life that I tried to read and couldn’t finish was Anne Rice’s “Interview with a Vampire”.  (The other three were “Angela’s Ashes”, “The God of Small Things” and “The Corrections”)  I had friends who were crazy for Rice’s books, but L’Estat never interested me.     I should probably go back and try “Interview” again.   My theory is that now I enjoy books about things that could never actually happen because they are so much more entertaining than real life drama.   Books like “The Corrections” hold no appeal for me; if I want to immerse myself in the world of hopelessly dysfunctional families, all I have to do is step outside.    (But I do like memoirs.  Hmm, maybe it’s only in fiction that I crave the fantastical.  Don’t give me fiction that is too much like reality.)

Harkness’ book is in a league by itself.  Available only in hardcover and at a whopping 500+ pages, it was an easy choice for my Nook, but this is the first time that taking time out to actually charge the Nook has seemed like an incredible inconvenience.   Damn those 8 hour batteries!      But it’s all charged up now, and sitting next to me on the couch while I write this, tempting me.   Isn’t it great when a book does that?   When a book usurps my interest in movies or “Castle”, it makes me happy.

This one does that in spades.

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On a completely unrelated subject and even though I haven’t seen any of the games to this point, GO BUTLER!!!!    (That’s an NCAA men’s basketball tournament reference, for those of you out there who don’t follow basketball and weren’t raised in Indiana)