Let's tesser to Camazotz

 I was going to title this post The Best Book I Ever Read.  As you may have already guessed by the title to this post, that book is A Wrinkle In Time, by Madeleine L'Engle.  Granted, L'Engle won the Newbery Medal, among other awards for this her best known and beloved novel, but to say it's the best book I've ever read not only isn't really accurate, it's not where I'm going here either.  It would be more accurate for me to say that it's the book I'm most glad that I read.

 I read for at least a little while every day.  And sometimes, on a day off or an evening if no one else is home, I'll read a hundred pages or more.  I read fiction.  Science fiction, fantasy, some horror - but don't hold your breath until you see me curling up with a presidential biography, the history of any war, or anything that includes a black and white picture of men driving railroad spikes home with big hammers.  I feel like A Wrinkle In Time set me on the path to becoming a future fan of Star Trek, the X-Files, and avid reader of authors such as Orson Scott Card, Gene Wolfe, Brian Lumley, Patrick Rothfuss, Justin Cronin, to name just a few who have transported me elsewhere with their gift.

 As I recall, it was the the first full-fledged chapter book that I read just for the fun of it.  And despite that it was nearly forty years ago, it was an experience that remains vivid in my memory.  I mean, this is a book that has it all for a young reader.  Space/Time travel via tesseract ( which is, in effect, a wrinkle in time ), shape-shifting characters, winged centaurs, good vs evil, and ultimately, ... triumphantly, Meg's incredible capacity for and expression of love winning out over the evil mind control of IT, and thus freeing her brother from IT's grip.  The interstellar travel includes visits to various planets including Camazotz, a world of forced conformity and home to IT, another planet with only two dimentions and one other in Orion's belt that's home to an ally known as the Happy Medium. ( a play on words I totally did not get as an eleven year old )

 So anyway, if this has seemed like a commercial for A Wrinkle In Time, I apologize.  Heaven knows it needs no further promotion, having sold north of ten million copies to date.  I guess I just wanted to take a few minutes to carve out a little niche in my blog to give credit where it's due.  Many of the interests and viewpoints I hold today can be traced back to the early influence of this book.  That makes it, if not the best, probably the most important book I've ever or will ever read.