Yesterday was the busiest I've been in awhile. Monday afternoon, I had been complaining to a colleague that I was bored. The karmic wheel spins and Tuesday was hectic. Not a bad thing, but I'm glad today is less so.

After work last night, I stopped off at the public library. I had taken a break from audiobooks in the car. I often listen to them on the way to and from work. But over the holidays, I've been relying on terrestrial radio, either adult contemporary (yes, I know I'm getting old) or 80's (my generation's version of the oldies station) or NPR. rosepurr and I recently bought a membership to our local NPR station, which makes me feel better about listening to it and more like I should.

I enjoy it, but it's hard to take sometimes. On the ride home, I get Marketplace. I try to follow economic news for both my wife's and my job and our personal finances, but there's no optimism to be found on Marketplace these days. In the doldrums of winter, I need whatever optimism I can find. There's not much happiness on Morning Edition on the drive in, either.

So last night after work, I stopped off at the public library to find an audiobook. I went straight to the audiobook section and found nothing that appealed to me. Too serious, too heady, too long, too much drama. Then I remembered that children's audiobooks are in the children's section. In the last year or two, I've really rediscovered children's books. I've reread some of my favorites and found new ones, mainly recommended by rosepurr. (She is still convinced I grew up in a basement, seeing little sunlight and having only dust bunnies for friends. Sometimes it sounds like the truth.)

I made my way there. I found several things. I settled on what I'm currently listening to - James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl, read by Jeremy Irons. Scar's voice reading Dahl's mischevious pose is wonderful. Irons hams it up, too, giving different voices to each character (most notably, James's horrible aunts).

Today, coincidentally, I was going through a month-old copy of The Chronicle of Higher Education and came upon this wonderful essay written by a literature professor who has fallen in love once again with children's books. There is something wonderful about the lack of pretense, the playfulness, the swiftness of pace. It's why we read fiction in the first place.