How To Read The Count Of Monte Cristo

Reading gives me a feeling that is rather difficult to explain. It is as though I want to shut out the world and fall completely into the book so I can experience the words instead of just reading them, but at the same time I want to be able to talk to every person I know about the story and the characters and every little detail of every major plot twist. There is one book that gives me that feeling more than any other: The Count of Monte Cristo.
The meteorologist on television and the one who contributed to the Washington Post that week agreed that there would be snow starting at nine o’clock that night. It was about the right time since snow here in Northern Virginia comes later in the winter. I was on break after my fall semester and I decided it was a good time

My deck is like a playground to animals like birds and squirrels during the summer and spring, but because it was winter it was very empty. The snow seemed to absorb some of the sound that is usually coming from cars on the main road a couple houses over and the only sound I could hear clearly now was the mix of the crackle and pop of the fire and the sound of the pages of my book turning. The fire created the perfect amount of light for my reading and as the sun set, however unnoticeably through the clouds, the fire’s light became more perfect. The smell around was powerful despite the dullness of the sounds and the perfection of the sights around me. ‘I’m going to go inside after this and smell like smoke,” I thought. I used to think that smelling like smoke was a fate worse than death because I didn’t want to give anyone the impression that I was smoking, but this was a different kind of smoke. It was like a campfire, but it was mixed with the cool winter air that made it smell different somehow. Occasionally, I would get a big whiff of the hot chocolate still in my hand and it had a way of tying the whole situation