Just One More Chapter

Every reader knows this lie.

“Just one more chapter.”

It sounds innocent at first. You say it like you mean it. One more chapter, then the book closes, the light goes off, and you go to sleep like a responsible person.

But then the chapter ends on something good.

Now you need to know what happens next. So you read another one. Then another one. Then you check the time and realize you should have been asleep a long time ago.

That is when you know a book has you.

There is something special about a story that makes you forget the clock. Even when you know you will be tired the next day, you keep turning the pages because you are already too deep in it.

So I have to ask: have you ever stayed up way too late because of “just one more chapter”?