I remember when I got really comfortable flying my old ultralight airplane. The perfect summer day, no wind, gathering hot, and I’d feel the wings bite into the air and lift me into that summer sky. Yeah, sorta like that.

Or my new Mini Cooper. It feels perfect, a combination of sensible and sensual. It’s nimble and quick, good for precisely the sort of driving clod-hopper FUVs are incapable of. Yeah, it’s smooth and sexy, just like that.

Spooning a lover. Standing before a crowd and bowing. The perfect off-the-cuff statement. The rainy weekend with nothing to do. All those things. Just as good as that.

I’m talking about when you open a book and start to read it and suddenly you know its going to be a good and balanced story. That’s a feeling that all readers crave. You aren’t counting pages, or wincing when fake accents are thrown up, or spotting where it’s going a hundred pages shy. No. You’re just basking in a book, listening to your friend the author spool out his story.

Look, I love Sabatini and he’s one of my favorites. I finished his Italian Motley Fool adventure, smiled, and shut off the ereader. Then I picked up an old paperback I’d scooped out of Maya Books and Music, just a little thing I’d pulled from the shelf, frowned over, considered it’s hand-written price, almost put it back, then added it to my stack. It’s sat next to the bed for ages, and now I finally got a chance to read it.

And I’m loving it. For a near-professional reader like me, I appreciate the balance, the storytelling, the wording. It’s solid and fun and interesting. I’m hooked.

Yeah, readers know this feeling – 100 pages into the new book and smiling like a love-sick little girl.

MmmmmMMmmmm!

(I’ll report on this one soon, gang!)

>>>I SURE HOPE THAT SOME READER OUT THERE READ “EARLY RETYREMENT” AND FELT THE SAME WAY. I HOPE THEY WEPT WHEN THE LAST PAGE FLIPPED PAST. MAYBE YOU WILL TOO! GET A COPY HERE. SO VERY, VERY CHEAP!<<<