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November 22, 1963

Or 11/22/63, if you are a Stephen King fan.

Wow.  My husband read the book and insisted that I read it.  I kept putting it off, complaining that the more than 800 pages in a hard cover bound copy was just too heavy, literally and figuratively.  I'm not interested in time travel, unless someone can show me how to really do it.

I don't like to read about things that can't happen.  I could hardly understand all the "pretend play" my kids engaged in when they were younger.

But he was persistent, kept asking me when I planned to start it.  I said things like: "oh, during April vacation, maybe" or, "when it comes out in paperback," or this one, "when I'm in the mood for a time travel-type book" (never).

Finally, because I couldn't come up with any more excuses, I made a deal: I would listen to the AUDIObook while walking my dog.  Each day, with the dog on a leash, I touched the little screen on my iPod and listened to a portion of 11/22/63.

I'm fairly certain that I started the book in June.  Well, I'm happy to announce that I've just completed it!  It was a long time coming, many miles and words later, I understand the intricacies of time travel and how if someone tries to change the past (it's "obdurate") there is a butterfly effect that will bite you in the you-know-what.

I enjoyed the love story: Jake (aka George) and Sadie are timeless lovers.  Woven within this aching love story is a novel about how things were better long ago, before computers and smart phones and pollution and global warming and escalating gas prices and terrorists and any other number of things many of us find distasteful.

I was sad to say goodbye to Sadie and Jake, I'll miss them.  But I won't miss Oswald and his cranky family or King's failure to edit his book at little better.

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