Obsessions change, not need

?I am all the ages I?ve ever been.? ?Anne Lamott

Sometimes the unlikeliest pair can make a powerful force. As people tend to do with books and music, I might stumble across an author or musician that hits a nerve (quotes and lyrics tend to run along the same nerves) and hold on, reading and listening to everything I can get my hands and ears on.

Pre-1990, it was Danielle Steel and Billy Joel. Author Danielle Steel became this icon to the high school version of me, her words semi-permanently housed in rows of beat up paperbacks on my headboard bookshelf. Kaleidoscope and Crossings, which I now remember only the names of, as opposed to their plots, were the epitome of fantasy to a teenage girl.

And then there was Billy. ?It?s Still Rock and Roll to Me? and ?Only the Good Die Young? were spinning (yes, spinning, a needle was involved) every day after school for hours.

Obsession, sweet obsession. At some point I moved on, either giving away or throwing out my Danielle Steels. Billy stayed with me through the years, move after move, from turntables to mp4s, that original vinyl eventually laid to rest alongside Rick Springfield and probably a Madonna or two in a plastic tub on a shelf somewhere.

Some things die with age and time, but not this kind of fascination. It only gets transferred. I have been through phases with Dean Koontz and White Lion. There was an intense Sylvia Plath period during a literature class, temporary but powerful, where I read ?The Mirror? one too many times. Even more unexplainable, that Travis Tritt/Neal McCoy chapter. I?m not comfortable talking about that one.

Today my new obsession in an author named Anne Lamott. She?s apparently been around for some time, but I just found her. I think when you need answers to questions you can?t quite form or don?t even know you have, reading as many different things as possible can get you there.

Enter Lamott. I haven?t read all of her stuff (yet.) I found her writing instruction book, ?Bird by Bird,? moved on to YouTube to find every interview I could, and finished ?Help Thanks Wow? last week.

This is the stuff book clubs were made for, so I hope mine will be up for it next round. After all, obsessions are not meant to be hidden away in a little corner in your house.

Well, some are, but that?s another story for another day, and a cable channel. No, they should be shared. Like books and music. Lamott and Joel. Plath and?Tritt? Sure, if that?s your thing.

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