When we were first married, my wife and I would trade favorite books. Somehow, that fell away over the years, but I've tried to stay aware of which books Linda loves, and to read one every once in awhile. (I'm asking her to read WATERSHIP DOWN, which I KNOW she'll love.)

She's been a huge fan of the GREEN KINGDOM, by Rachel Maddux, for years. This is a Utopian novel that the author took twenty years to write, lovingly created, fully thought out. Something about the middle of the last century created these lifework novels; ISLANDIA, GREEN KINGDOM, and, of course, LORD OF THE RINGS.

GREEN KINGDOM is about 500 pages, (which Robert Jordan does every couple months, I believe), and it is a full 100 pages before they start off on the journey, and another 60 pages before they get there. Very stately pace. Though it was written in 1957, it feels a century older. Almost Victorian. Everyone gets around mostly on railroads. Cars travel on roads that are undeveloped, with roadhouses along the way. (every night's stay and restaurant a gamble in quality.) It just seems like another world. I was completely shocked by the F*#^ word about 200 pages in. Lots of plot development, diversions, character development. Once I decided to just appreciate the pace and the atmosphere, the story became much easier to settle into.

One of the characters has an obsession with recording people's lives. He wants to create a library of everyone's experiences, from the low to the high, the mundane to the interesting. And all I could think of as I read about this was -- in a way, the blogosphere is doing that.

For some reason, Linda has a fascination with 'lost' worlds. Hollow earth stories; lost continent stories; under and behind the mountains and lakes of this world is another world stories.

This isn't a story you can rush. You have to take your time and savor it.