Tell me how high this rates on the vanity scale...
A couple nights in a row this last week, I woke up in the wee hours for what felt like at least half an hour -- that annoying kind of awake where it's too much trouble to reach for the lamp and a book, so you end up just lying there, bored and semi-groggy.
By night #3, I decided an audiobook playing low on my iPod dock might lull me (or at least occupy me) better than my view of the ceiling. This is a tricker proposition than meets the eye -- you need something in a soothing, level tone. Something familiar enough to doze off into, yet not so familiar as to send you drifting back toward boredom. Also, something that doesn't have harmonica riffs in between each chapter, like the Grapes of Wrath, which made my eyes flap open every 10 minutes or so.
Now, I have always been the sort of author who doesn't dare open her own book. Not because I can't stand it, though. Quite the contrary -- if I open it, there's a 96% chance I'll sit right down and read it like I've never read it before. So on night #4 I kind of smirked and glanced over my shoulder to see if anyone was watching as I dialed through the Authors listing on my old pal the iPod and caught myself pausing over the M section. Not M for "Miller," mind you -- M for...wait for it... "Me."
Because much as I like what Recorded Books has done with Miss Spitfire, actually listening to the audio edition myself has always made me a tad self-conscious in a way that reading the print version never does. Could I really use my own former ruminations to hush my brain back to sleep, I wondered?
As it turns out, HECK YES. I dunno if it's good news or bad that I've spent the last two nights snoozing through the bulk of my very own book, but I sure am taken with the drifting off and waking up parts. You'd think I'd know this story well enough by now that I could lie there and recite it along with Terry Donnelly; instead I find myself just plain enjoying a good story on a topic I like a whole lot. This may become a permanent habit.
