What am I reading?

I’m rereading my most favorite book of all time, Dune by Frank Herbert. To be honest, the Dune movies are the only movies I own. Both the regular version and the extended one. I recorded the Children of Dune miniseries when it came out. With the new dune movie coming out, I’m cautiously hopeful the other films were good. But none of them even came close to the intricacies written by Frank Herbert in the book.

I admit I put this one on a pedestal because it was the first thing I read as a teen that grabbed me and threw me into another time and place. I used to raid my cousin’s library relatively often, and this is one book he had that I don’t think I returned to him.

It’s still my all-time favorite. Any other book would be hard-pressed to take its place. As a child growing up with a feeling of insecurity, I could relate to Paul Atreides. How strange he must have found it to be moved from one world to another. The simple fact that there wasn’t water and he came from a world with nothing but water.

I read this book again and again throughout my teen years. I felt displaced with my life as he did. He slowly cultivated friendships that would replace the family he lost. That made me feel braver to do the same as I got older. That I too would no longer be afraid and would make my own way with my a family of my own making. That famous quote helped me with fear. It gave me the courage to leave and start a new life.