Self portrait Thursday: reading on the train

Reading on train

And this is what I am reading:

Blackbird House

Alice Hoffman

It is short stories which I often find unsatisfying, ie, you just feel you are starting to get to know the characters and care about them and then all of a sudden they are gone.  I am not feeling this with these stories though.  The stories are all linked by a common setting and have a kind of magical quality to them which I am loving.  I love these words from one of the characters in one of the stories on the subject of reading:

I read books as though I were eating apples, core and all, starved for those pages, hungry for every word that told me about things I didn't yet have, but still wanted terribly, wanted until it hurt.

Made me wonder if the purpose of reading is to fulfil a kind of yearning?  I know I get very agitated if I can't read.  It is like books are a kind of drug for me.  Maybe I need to spend more time just looking out the window sometimes. 

ETA: I have read more of this book now and I am pleased to report that the character I quoted above actually continues on into three of the short stories (albeit in a minor role).  Actually getting a bit of a headache trying to make all the relationships between the characters in the story.  Reminds me of the island where my husband's family live!