Mitzi Flyte

I know I’ve been M.I.A. for weeks.I have no excuses. I could fabricate some but that’s too much like work.

Actually I’ve been reading. And as my FB friend, Kelly says, “(Expletive deleted), don’t you have cable?”

Yeah. I’ve got cable but I seem to prefer books (regular or the ones on my Kindle).

I’ve read almost 20 books so far this year. And yes, I am keeping track. I seem to forget titles, pull one off a library shelf, and then realize, by page 2, that I’ve read it.

I love books that send me to researching new topics. I have a fascination with everything paranormal,  Jack the Ripper, and Victorian London. There…you have some of my deep dark secrets.

In the last week I read two “Sherlock-type” books. One was by the wonderful historical writer (and Sherlock fan) Edward Hanna—The Whitechapel Horrors. This book was so well researched that I felt I was set smack-dab in the middle of London’s Eastside, not the best place to be, unless you are rat. I will definitely read more of Hanna’s Sherlock Holmes books since Arthur is no longer writing them.

Vaughn Entwhistle’s (I do love that very Victorian name) The Revenant of Thraxton Hall has Conan Doyle and Oscar Wilde as friends on a paranormal journey.

While reading this, I realized I knew next to nothing about Wilde (other than the “scandal”) and I immediately searched for a book about Constance, Wilde’s wife. I never knew he’d been married; in fact, I never really thought about it, because of the “scandal.”

I listen to books on CD while I drive. I’d listen to several of Linda Fairstein’s mysteries years ago and renewed my acquaintance with her main character, Alexandra Cooper, recently.

Fairstein’s Terminal City centers on Grand Central Station and Death Angel takes place in Central Park with The Dakota as a secondary character. And now that I think of it, New York City, its famous sites and restaurants are all characters in her books.

Of course, I had to look up information on Grand Central and get a book about Central Park. I even printed out a map of the Park so I could follow the police action in the book. (Look, I already know I’m nuts.)

Although I’ve never been inside The Dakota, I’ve spent many December 8’s standing in front of it, in one very infamous spot, and looking at it from Strawberry Fields in Central Park. A book on The Dakota will be my next purchase.

So listening to Fairstein’s books satisfies my love for New York City…almost. I’m already planning a spring trip. I need to see The Dakota and walk down Central Park West to the American Museum of Natural History (the site of the “Night in the Museum” movies…campy but funny).

And there is my confession.

I have an addiction.

My addiction is reading.

My pushers: Reading Public Library and Amazon

It goes along well with my other addiction—writing.

My heaven would be a huge library, a soft chair, all my family who’d gone before, along with all my four-legged family.

Yep, that would be heaven.