Finished!

I suppose the idea of starting the Summer Reading Groupies whet my appetite for reading more than I had expected it would. Before I had children, I would sometimes read an entire book in a day - start when I got up (sometimes in my pajamas), break only to grab something to eat at meals, then go to bed late after finishing. I haven't done that in, well, eight and a half years. My enjoyment of devouring a good story has been dormant under the surface, though.

While I didn't forsake laundry or fixing meals or other stuff that a mom has to do, I did squeeze as much reading as I possibly could into the last few days, and managed to finish Jane Eyre this afternoon!

It is a moving story. Things I especially liked:

• Jane manages to make decisions based on what she knows in her brain is the right thing to do, despite her emotions almost getting the better of her
• She sees past the visible parts of a person to who they truly are - the outside is not as important as the inside to her
• Mystery & drama!
• The use of words you'd never hear your friends using: indefatigable, hitherto, impracticable, chastisement, unreverberating, pertinaciously, alas!
• Justice eventually finds those who deserve it, but so does happiness and kindness

The closing words of this book surprised me, but if you have read all 432 pages, seen the havoc humanity can cause by their selfishness or closed-heartedness, contrasted by the simple ways one heart can touch another by small unselfish acts, these words seem a fitting, bittersweet conclusion:

"My Master," he says, "has forewarned me. Daily He announces more distinctly, 'Surely I come quickly!' and hourly I more eagerly respond, 'Amen; even so come, Lord Jesus!'"

Now, I think I am ready to once again see the movie!