Yesterday I learned that a blog entry written while half asleep looks exactly like a blog entry that was written while fully awake. I can't decide if this is a good thing, and perhaps a sign of how effortless blogging has become for me - or it's a very bad thing and I sign that I write all blog entries on automatic pilot. I'm going to go with the explanation that makes me look better - so option number one it is.
Today's book, "Ever gotten rich playing the Monopoly Game? Solved the whodunit in Clue? Impressed friends with your knowledge of random factoids in Trivial Pursuit? If so, you'd be one of the millions who have enjoyed the thrill of a good game, courtesy of Parker Brothers - one of the world's best known and most enduring game publishers. Yet while Parker Brothers' classic games have become part of Americana, few people know the fascinating story behind the firm that George S. Parker started."
Shallow thoughts:
- I had another "Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, I've already read this book for the blog" moment earlier today, which resulted in me making a desperate run for the computer to search through the archives. I discovered that I have read a book that is similar to this one earlier in the year - but it was about the history of the game Monopoly. The books I've read this year have turned into such a huge blur that I can't even remember what I've read and what I haven't.
- I didn't care for the book on the history of Monopoly, despite loving the game, but today's book was much better. I'm not sure what it is that compels me to continue to read books on the same subject as other books I have intensely disliked - perhaps I'm expecting some sort of literary compensation for having read a crappy book, and I'm hoping that if I keep trying I will stumble across that magical book that was so good it will make up for the bad ones that came before it. I'm still waiting for that to happen with the by the sea/back to nature books I compulsively read - but I can call off the search with books on the subject of board games.
- And now it's time to talk about my childhood love of Monopoly - a detail I sadly left out of my last blog entry on this subject. I've always loved the game Monopoly - although I've never had the attention span for it and so, like an eight year-old, I get bored mid-way through the game and always want to quit. But while I'm playing, I'm completely totally obnoxious about it (also like an eight year-old) - I'm hyper-competitive about it, I trash talk the other players, I whine when I'm not winning. And once, at a slumber party, when I was leaving the other players in my dust, I took advantage of their desperation and starting bribing people with the fake Monopoly money. I have no idea why they actually responded to my attempts at bribery, but for some reason they did, and so I spent most of the evening saying things like, "I really want a drink, but I don't feel like moving. I'll give you 500 dollars if you bring me a Coke." Why anyone responded to that ridiculous request with, "Okay," is beyond me, but when someone is humoring me I don't ask questions.
And now dear readers, I'll give you 1,000 dollars if you leave a comment telling me what your favorite board game is.
