Lost Horizon

I picked out the smallest book I could find in our school library for my report. Mrs. Anderson, my esteemed English teacher, was speechless. I was a good student, and, here, I had picked out LOST HORIZON, by James Hilton, probably the shortest novel in the school library.

Why? I didn’t especially like to read. I found it an effort.
She asked me to re-think my decision. I told her I was comfortable with the book I had chosen but started to re-think my position as I walked back to my seat and spotted all the one to three inch hardback novels being read by my classmates. I felt about as small as my skinny paperback.

LOST HORIZON, however, is assured a place in publishing history in that it was the first novel published in paperback in 1939. And, made into a film in 1973…. which proves a book does not have to be of epic proportions to be successful. (Okay, need a smiley face, here.)

Somehow, my world changed in many ways, and I became an avid reader in college and beyond. I also started to write (short books and one of more novel proportions).  So, if there’s a needed reason here for my LOST HORIZON story, it is that we change, or, at least, we are capable of doing so.

What lies ahead? I’ll continue to read and write. I just started Michener’s HAWAII—talk about a book of epic proportions. Writing? The thought of writing another novel is a tad over-whelming. I have ideas. Writers always have ideas—sometimes too many. 

Mrs. Anderson died many years ago. But, I think she would be tickled with the idea that I have a Michener novel in my hands and that I’ve come up with a novel or two or more myself.