Starting a New Book

I tried and tried to find a weekly meme for Wednesday. Trying to come up with my own topics is hard! I haven't had a lot of time to read in the last week *sob* so I don't even have any books to review. When I get back from Vegas I'll have at least two though. Or at least that's the plan.

I thought I would discuss the occasional difficulty of starting a new book. I'm sure I'm not alone in this. You know that feeling of complete connection that sometimes you have with a character or set of characters? Sometimes I end a book and have found myself so involved with the characters that I almost grieve a little. There's a bit of a mourning period. I can't just put down one book and pick up the next. It doesn't work like that for me. I need time to process.

Then again, I need to read. Often when I pick up that next book, I have a hard time getting going. The characters seem unfamiliar (they are) and if it's a different author, the rhythm of the words are different. It's one of the reasons that I like to read a series of books. I know that I can pick up a Stephanie Plum book at any moment and fall back into the rhythm with Stephanie, Morelli and Ranger almost instantly. The characters are comfortable and friendly. It's a nice feeling.

I'm looking at that list of books I made yesterday for the A to Z challenge and wondering how I'm going to handle all the new authors and new books. Not all are unfamiliar but there isn't a Stephanie Plum book on that list yet which tells me that I'll be making new friends in 2009. That's not a bad thing.