As anyone who has ever met me is probably aware, one of the books that most changed my life is Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time.(It also, apparently, did so for Sawyer in LOST. Woo!)
My father first read the book to me as a bedtime story. Even though I was just at that age where, beginning to read, I would peer over his shoulder to read ahead, nothing ever matched his ability to do the amazing voices of the Three Ladies. To this day, each time I reread the book (an act I do every year or so), I hear those voices in my mind's ear.
The book is such a part of my being that my go-to quotation is straight from it* -- a book which, in a very tongue-in-cheek nod to the literary world, L'Engle began, "It was a dark and stormy night."
L'Engle passed away this weekend at the age of 88. I hope I will reread her book each year until I am at least that age.
And speaking of ways, by the way, there is such a thing as a tesseract.To you, Mrs. Whatsit.
*Apparently, if you Google "Speaking of ways, by the way..." my blog is the third hit. I happily assume the mantle of the Mrs. W's.
