Chapter and verse....

I have been trying for the last eighteen months to finish, restart, and finish again, a Harry Potter book. I was excited when it came out, all that time ago. Tonight I finally finished it, and in doing so, I've probably learned a little more about myself.

I always feel that reading is a solitary occupation. I am not one that finds it easy to flip briskly through a book, when surrounded by distraction. I hate reading a few pages, only to find that my mind's been elsewhere, and that I haven't actually registered the printed words that literally went in one eye and out the other.

So, I've finished the book. It's late. A little too late for normal people. A sense of loss, emptiness, and loneliness has encompassed me. I usually feel like this at the end of a book, and realise that this is why I so often leave the final few chapters of books unread for prolonged periods of time.

I should be in bed. My mind is elsewhere. This is one night where I should not be alone, but then how would I have finished the book?