The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon - I struggled with actually being able to type what I am about to type. As a librarian, the words that follow carry a weight outside of themselves when I repeat them to others, so I do not use them lightly...this book is, quite possibly, the best book I have ever read. It was difficult for me to get into this book, to really sit down and embrace it, as I was busy and distracted throughout the first half. That is never the way to read a book. This one deserves to be savored, each and every word of it, and I fully intend to go back and read it in order to give the parts I took lightly the respect I failed to give them initially.I can't really even describe what this book is about as it is about so many things, it is the story of so many people, and it is the story of a city...Barcelona. On the facade, it is a book about a book. But, once inside, the reader finds that it is really a book about how books affect us, emotionally, spiritually, and physcially. How a book can reach out and grab us and take us down an entirely different road than we had anticipated. That is all I am going to give you about the plot of this book...if you don't take my recommendation simply on its own merits by now, then anything I write about the book won't sell it to you. READ THIS BOOK....
