The Journey or The Destination

At my house the most fun day of the year is this day before Christmas.  My stepsons are grown with families of their own and two of my sons have serious girlfriends.  They all need to spend some holiday time with the families of their significant others.  Christmas Day had become too hectic and stressed as we tried to get together during the morning hours.  When my children still believed in Santa, my beloved stepsons really wanted to be there and share the magic of Christmas morning.  Now everyone is older they prefer to sleep in that blessed morning.  I like having a cup of coffee before they wake and sharing some time with my husband.

So we started having our celebration the day before Christmas.  We eat buffet style, exchange gifts, play games and have a wonderful time.  I love this day and look forward to it for weeks.  I  can't wait for it to get here but I try to slow down and take time to enjoy the anticipation.  If I don't it's like peeking ahead to the back of a book and seeing how it ends.  It rather ruins all the suspense leading up to the grand finale.  

The journey to the end is what makes a book really good.  You can't have a great ending if you can't keep the reader interested enough to get there.  I love a book that makes me want to slow down so I don't get to the end too quick though I can't wait to read what happens.  The books on my keeper shelf are the ones I savored by page by page.  Sure they had great endings but it was everything leading up to that ending that made the book one of my favorites.  It was the twists, the surprises, the heart-wrenching losses and uplifting triumphs leading up the 'The End.'

What puts a book on your 'keeper' shelf?  Do you look ahead to the end of books?