the end is near?

ok, so today there are afternoon storm warnings, complete with an announced chance of tornados.......and my workmates have spent the morning obsessing on exactly where we are to meet in case the siren goes off: we have a weather radio in the front office that goes off when a weather alert is directed toward this zip code.....and everyone with a tornado-while-at-work story to tell has shared it.....and so i figured i best go ahead and blog over lunch to catch up with all of the blogthoughts that have gone unblogged.....got it?.....last night i finished the book map of the world by jane hamilton...when i get over the plot line i may reread the work..just to be sure exactly what the title means......the reference came up early on, before everything in the main character's life goes to hell in a handbasket.....and it meant nothing definitive in that moment.....and still doesn't after i reached the marginally uplifting end....like so many books i have read of late.....i am more enamored of the prose than the plot line......the circumstances relevant to the plot could happen to any of us at any time.....and the scenario in this case.....a beleagured working mother with a distracted spouse......rang too true for my comfort level......in fact when alice...the mm in question, screamed at her kids that it was time to go to the (goddamned) store or slapped the client or laid herself down in the yard to cry or brushed by the overly inquisitive gawkers at the funeral.....i could see myself saying/doing the same thing if pushed in the way she was pushed by those around her.....who inevitably saw her as mean rather than complex and uncertain and anxious and more than a little depressed.......and so the question is.....is it possible (for me) to read a book without internalizing every detail.......or is that the point to a good book....and therefore books that make no connection aren't worth finishing?......that would explain my growing pile of unfinished books......and what about books that i reread.....numerous times.......am i looking for prose that has proven to raise my spirits, make the connection, revitalize that which i have already internalized.......like austen's novels...clearly books that i find pleasure and a little something new in each reread......i don't think that i particularly see myself as any one character in any of her novels, but it is so comforting to come back to these strong women when the latest modern novel has messed with my head......ah well.....i shall ponder these points, especially if i spend part of my work day crouched in the lab waiting for the storm to pass......