I'm a voracious reader and at any one time there are upwards of 20 books beside my bed in various states of having been read. If a book captures me I barely put it down before it's done, but most books capture me for a couple days and then I set them aside to read a bit of another, and then back to the first. You get the picture.There is a small independent bookshop downtown that I've been visiting since I started University here 10 years ago. Back then I was always on the lookout for good queer fiction, but queer fiction is a fairly small genre, and good queer fiction is even harder to come by, so within a few years I had read everything worth reading, and except for graphic novels by Alison Bechdel have not read queer fiction in years. There has been however, one book that has been on the shelf at the bookstore, a book I've heard about, and a book I've noticed for a decade now. It's a book that I kept picking up, but not taking home. Before today I've never really considered why I had not chosen it, maybe it was because it seemed from another era, or maybe (I hate to admit) because I was embarassed to be seen buying such an obviously butch title, or maybe it's just because I wasn't ready for it.
A couple weeks ago I bought "Stone Butch Blues" and I read the whole thing last Sunday afternoon. I couldn't put it down. I both laughed out loud and cried as I read it. At one point I took a break to have some lunch, and noticed that I was halfway through. I remember actually smiling to myself at the though that I still had so much of the book left to enjoy. I spent my lunch digesting what I'd read and being intrigued by where the story might lead.
The book opened my eyes to the experiences of lesbians one and two generations ago. It gave me a new appreciation for butch women who refuse to conform with society's expectations and demands of femininity. It gave me a reference point for appreciating how much has changed over the past 40-50 years and how lucky I am. My perfect moment for today is the wonder of an eye-opening book, especially at that moment when you're halfway through and hooked.
