Boots and Books I Want #1

What do books and boots have in common, besides the first three letters of their name? For me, it's the possibilities they represent. No matter how many of them I get, I still want more.

Every book represents a new world that's about to open itself up. Sometimes I abandon a book before I reach its end. I figure life is too short to read something I'm not really into, at least not until I've given it a fighting chance. But if it's a book I love, I dread reaching the end, and I mourn the loss of that book until I find my next literary love.

Boots aren't dissimilar. I have A LOT of boots, some I wear frequently, some not so much. Yet this doesn't stop me from always being on the search for my next great pair. Here's why:

Two weeks ago I had a terrible cold. I had virtually no voice, my eyes were red and runny;  I looked and sounded awful. My students noticed, and I overheard a couple of them talking. "Man," one sophomore guy said to his friends, "Today is not her day. But she's still wearin' her boots."

It's true. I had on my black suede moccasin boots, worn with purple leggings and a short black skirt. And even though I felt dreadful, the boots convinced me life wasn't all bad. Call me superficial, but I just love boots.

Anyway, we just got back from a family trip to Louisville,  so there was a lot of time in the airport. Time in the airport can means two things:
1.) If by some miracle both kids are either asleep or occupied, I have time to read.
2.) The more likely scenario: I'm either walking around with Eli or holding Pauline or both, which means I have time to rubberneck and check out the boots that fellow travelers are wearing.

I did read a little - Mistaken Identity by Lisa Scottoline, but it's not holding my interest. I think I'm going to jump carts midstream. Here are some of my possibilities for my next selection:

• The Handmaid's Tale - How could I not have read this yet? I like dystopian tales, I like young adult lit,  I LOVED the Hunger Games, and I heard that Bumped, by Megan McCafferty, is very derivative of it, and I'm planning on reading that when it's released. So both books are on my TBR list.
• Roses - This is already on my kindle. I've heard it compared to Gone With the Wind, and my mother-in-law said she was sad when she was done with it. But it's really long, so I want to wait until I'm ready to fully commit before I start.
• My Name is Memory - I think Ann Brashares is a wonderful author (I loved Sisterhood of Traveling Pants and The Last Summer of You and Me) and this novel sounds compelling. It's about a high school guy who remembers his past lives, and is trying to convince his one true love of their past/connection.

Now... as for boots. I could have been weird-stalker lady at the airport, and used my camera phone to snap photos every time a pair of boots that I coveted walked by, but I was usually holding a nine-month-old, so that was just impractical.  Instead, I went to my go-to site for fantasy shopping, the Sundance catalog, and saved images of the boots that most resembled some of the ones I've pined for recently. Things I look for in a boot: low heel, calf length or higher, a side zipper (I have very high insteps, so pulling on boots can be a real challenge), and color variety. Here are my top choices at the moment, for whenever I have a few extra hundred dollars burning a hole in my pocket:

Aren't they beautiful? The blackish purple snow boots would be very practical for winter in Minnesota, but the rest were chosen on looks alone. The cowboy ones I probably wouldn't ever wear, but I love the teal colored flowers. The top selection I love for the lacy look. The bottom ones remind me of my old Doc Martens that I got rid of years ago, but now suddenly I miss them. Is that look coming back?