the healing power of books

i have a friend who had to go in for emergency back surgery. apparently she went to the doc yesterday to check out the results of her MRI and was told to go straight to emerge, do not pass go, do not collect $200.

she went under the knife this afternoon (apparently it was urgent enough she had to go to emerge and stay in the hospital, but not urgent enough to bump any elective surgery) at the first available surgery slot. i imagine she's still sedated as i type this (i think she went under around 2 and it's a 3+hr surgery - god surgeons must have a lot of samina...).

for my part i am going to rely on the healing power of books. for the next little while i imagine her mobility will be severly limited and her hobbies will consist of whatever she can think of to distract herself. well, distraction i can handle. i do distraction very well.

and so, i will provide her with excellent distraction, in the form of what are possibly the best books i've ever read (i find that a hard statement to back up because there are others that are wonderful in different ways).

for those of you who don't feel like clicking on the link, i am speaking here of the wonderful 'his dark materials' series by philip pullman. the books are the golden compass (or if you're in england apparently it's called northern lights...), the subtle knife and the amber spyglass.

so, last night i raised my glass to friends, today i raise to books.