What Do You Call a Page-Turner With No Pages?

There have been many times when I've been reading a book that was hard to put down.

You know how it is? You carry the book with you everywhere, hoping for a minute to read another page or two.

When a book is *really* good, lots of opportunities to read a few pages can present themselves if you let them:

Sitting in the bathroom (at least until you start to feel a bit drafty)...

At the playground (keeping one eye on the book and the other on the child, making sure not to let the swing hit you in the head)...

Patiently waiting for the light to turn green...

... the possibilities are endless!!

But I digress.

This past week, I had a situation like that, but with a wrinkle:

The book was on CD.

Last week, knowing I was going to have two three-hour drives by myself for my son's band trip, I stopped by the library to see if an audiobook would catch my eye. To my delight, I found a book that I had already added to the mental list of books that I wanted to read sometime: Neil Gaiman's "Anansi Boys". I scooped it up immediately.



The book was *very* enjoyable. It was so pleasant to listen to on my drives, that I even found myself mildly irritated whenever I would find myself at my destination.

The biggest problem was when I arrived back home from the trip... and was only partway through the fifth CD in a set of eight!

AAARGH!

How would I manage? My life typically doesn't allow for leisurely sitting around listening to cd's.

I briefly thought about just going out and buying the book. All the library's copies were out (in fact I think I'm still in the queue for a copy to come available)... but the book is still new enough to be only available in hardcover... which I'm sure would run me thirty bucks or more. Scratch that idea.

So... I simply looked around for available spots to play a CD:

Both of my teenagers had little blasters which I borrowed (at different times). Once I used one while I was showering. Just played it LOUD and kept the shower curtain half open.

We have a radio in the kitchen which plays cd's... so I would play while doing kitchen stuff. (More slowly than usual...)

Even once I played it while driving in the car with my 5-year-old... and while I thought he'd complain, he never said boo.

Our bedside clock radio plays cd's too... and even has a headphone jack! I plugged it in one night at bedtime and let it run (although I don't think I heard too much before plunging into unconsciousness).

My dvd player in the family room was called into use as well, during family room pickup times whenever my little buddy was downstairs visiting with his grandmother. Ran it through the surround sound. Nice and loud. Just because I could.

Now... FINALLY... I'm happy to report that, with a little help from our kitchen clock/cd player, I have, just this evening, finished the book!

And, and I said, it was very enjoyable.

A real page-turner.

Except...

of course...

That it had no pages.