Write, Breathe, Live

Poignant

He did it again. He made me cry -- Nicholas Sparks that's who. I must admit his book Message in a Bottle opened up a trickle of tears when I read it a long time ago, but this time, A Walk To Remember released the floodgates. My eyes were literally puffy when I woke up the next morning!

It's not as if I didn't watch the movie, which by the way, I only caught half of in HBO. But still, I cried buckets near the ending. I must find a copy at the video store soon so I can watch it in full. Yup, it's me :p The one who also came out wailing at the conclusion of Uptown Girls even if I only caught part of the film. That's how easily touched I am by both sad and happy endings.

Then came the book version. I saw a copy sitting on a second-hand store bookshelf and idly wondered if I'll ever get to reading it. See, I'm not much of a Mandy Moore fan and she was on the cover. But I thought, what the heck, it's being sold cheap so I might as well save it for a day when I would feel like reading another book turned movie script and see which is better.

The other night, the moment came. Having trouble sleeping, I went to the kitchen to get me some warm chocolate milk and I happened to pass by the bookshelf where the book has been stagnating for months now. So I carried it back with me to the bedroom and started reading. By the second page, I was hooked. It was already 3 a.m. by then and I ran through the whole book until past 6 a.m.

The book amazingly is a light read, with very easy to understand dialogues and descriptions without the boring parts that characterized the Lord of the Rings trilogy or even some of my favorite Wilbur Smith books. I think I will urge my sons to read it when they turn at least 17 too, like Landon's character. I'm sure a lot of young minds will appreciate the book if only someone will encourage them to do so.

The whole time I was reading was a mixture of chuckles and sobs. I couldn't help but hug my dead-to-the-world sleeping husband tightly after I finished the book. It made me so thankful that I got to live this long and be able to have a family.

It was like what the reviews said ... definitely a story you won't forget for a long, long time. And I think I won't ... ever.