I should say my favorite book is something more academic, like The Sound and the Fury (William Faulkner). Unfortunately, that would be a huge lie...I never even made it to the second chapter. You'd think as a Southerner I could decipher the vernacular, but I haven't yet. It's a personal failure, I know. Every year I resolve to read it and every year I fail to follow through. (I haven't made that apple pie from scratch either.)
P&P is my coping mechanism.
Stressed out? Read P&P.
A little lonely? Read P&P.
At the beach? Grab Michael Connelly, James Patterson, Patricia Cornwell or something easy and light. (You can't read the same book all the time!)
P&P should be read alone in a quiet place. I find nestling in near a window with a hot cup of black tea really enhances the experience. If you can arrange for a nice, steady rain (one that makes every color in nature vibrant) you've hit the mother load.
My life is one of over-stimulation. I multitask all day long. Watching a little TV at the end of the day includes working sudoku puzzles, checking my e-mail, and working on my sketches. It's too much--I never have anything to show for my evenings (and that includes relaxation). The few stolen moments with P&P restore me.
I'm convinced multitasking will come back to bite our entire generation in the ass. We're running ourselves ragged doing too many things. We're distracted and that means everything we do is mediocre at best. It's only a matter of time before we can't carry on a real conversation with one another. Want a tutorial on the art of conversation? Read P&P.
