I suspect I’ll spend this coming weekend watching movies like “Sleepless in Seattle” and “You’ve Got Mail.”

That’s because the movies were written by Nora Ephron, who died yesterday at the age of 71 after a six-year battle with leukemia.

I’ve always admired her wit and wisdom.

She once said:

“Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim.”

I’ve re-read that quote often and it always inspires me to push myself past my comfort zone, to try something new. I don’t want to be on the sidelines.

As an avid reader (and a writer), I connected with what she wrote about reading in I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Women. She wrote:

“Reading is everything. Reading makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something, learned something, become a better person. Reading makes me smarter. Reading gives me something to talk about later on. … Reading is escape, and the opposite of escape; … Reading is grist. Reading is bliss.” 

As a former journalist, I never know whether to laugh or to cry at what she wrote in “Twenty-five Things People Have a Shocking Capacity to Be Surprised by Over and Over Again”:

“1. Journalists sometimes make things up.

“2. Journalists sometimes get things wrong.”

Whatever she was writing, she made us pause and think, and often laugh. It will be a good weekend to watch her movies and escape into her books.