Book Flashes

Sometimes as I am walking or driving, flashes of characters, bits of dialogue, and traces of elusive scenes dart unbidden through my mind. Here I do not mean whole, coherent scenes and thoughts (which I also have on other occasions!), but jumbled, inchoate, dreamlike images and sensations that don't stay long enough to analyze. On the one hand, this is slightly bothersome in a tantalizing way, as I can seldom remember or figure out which specific novels these visiting "excerpts" come from. On the other hand, it is strangely comforting, as it reminds me of all the company I carry in my head, the throng of wonderful characters, scenes, events, and knowledge...knowledge of the immense variety of human life and experience...knowledge of a wider and more complex world than I could ever experience in one lifetime without the multiple windows into multiple lives provided by wide reading.