[T]omorrrow, Stephen King’s second new book of 2013 arrives. Doctor Sleep is a sequel to The Shining and I am really looking forward to it. I thought his book from earlier this year, Joyland, was excellent and I’ve been looking forward to Doctor Sleep since it was first announced.

The little feeling of butterflies I get in anticipation of a new book made me reflect on some of the simple pleasures of life, one of which, for me, is the anticipation of a new book. It’s really not that much different from the anticipation leading up to a well-deserved vacation. Indeed, for me, books are a form of vacation, a way of skipping out on the real world for a time and living another life, taking an adventure, traveling back (or forward) in time, and doing things I might not ever be able to do otherwise.

Of all of the things my parents bestowed upon me, a love for books and a love for reading is perhaps greatest of gifts. And when I see my own kids bring in a book and ask me to read to them, well, it just makes me smile, and think, “You’re hooked, too, aren’t you? You just don’t know it yet.”

There are some movies I look forward to seeing. There are upcoming vacations which I dream of from time-to-time, but for simple pleasures, nothing is quite so sweet as the anticipation of a new book.