I’m one of those people who has pretty much never met a book I didn’t see something I liked it in, even if it was getting to “the end” on a bad one. I’ll read just about anything, including the milk carton if nothing else is available and share the mantra of “so many books, not enough time.” I have keepers that I vow I will read again, good ones that it would be nice if suddenly I could live to 300 and find a way to read everything and reread if I reread the keepers first, ones that were good, enjoyable and a few that I was sorry I picked up in the first place.

There is one book I DO reread every year — it’s my January ritual and each January I read the Count of Monte Cristo. The other “I’m difinitely going to rereads” well, the past few weeks I finally did reread four of them.

I read Mary Stewart’s Merlin series back when they first came out, over 25 years ago I guess. I have a memory of reading the four of them and feeling like I was there every step of the way with Merlin. Ms. Stewart takes you into the world of Merlin so fully. You feel the cold white frost of the ground when he sees Uther walk to the white bull and in the name of Mithras sacrifices it. You smell the clean mossy scent of Merlin’s cave, taste the dried biscuits. And, with four books that take you through a man’s life, a man, his family, his thoughts, you feel you know him. When the last page is read, you feel as if you are saying good bye to a dear friend.

I reread the four books — The Crystal Cave, The Hollow Hills, The Last Enchantment and The Wicked Day again the past two weeks. Even in that short time, I once again felt as if I had met and lived with Merlin and those around him. That I was part of the fabric of his life as seen through Ms. Stewart’s eyes. The first three I was swept up once again in the magic that is Merlin and Arthur. I felt as if a dear friend had died when there is only passing reference to Merlin in The Wicked Day. He has not died, he is just not the story teller; nor is Nimue. It is another person who tells the tale, no longer Merlin relating the story of his life and Arthur’s rise to the greatest king of all.

As I read the Wicked Day the past few days I began to miss Merlin and the characters. It reminded me of when I read The Ladies of the Club and the Far Pavillions also about 25 years ago. Even when you read the books straight through, day in, day out, there is a feeling of knowing these characters. They come part of the fabric of your life and when one dies, such as Binny in The Ladies of the Club, there is a feeling of loss. I felt that as I came to the end of The Wicked Day yesterday.

Entering Ms. Stewart’s world again a couple of weeks ago was magical. She transports the reader to that long ago time. There were elements I remembered, but the depth and richness of her writing came back with the reading of the tale once again. The sadness of saying goodbye to them is no less than the first time.

To change gears I picked up Taking Care of Business, an anthology with one of Toni Blakes Stories in it and will be starting Cherry Adair’s Night Secrets later today. I still miss Arthur, Merlin and the characters of Ms. Stewart’s book. Some day I hope to write characters that are so memorable 25 or more years after they have first appeared.

So, a question or two  – those keeper books, the ones you tell yourself you WILL read again, do you? Have you? What are their titles?