I'm feeling very lazy today dear readers - perhaps because it's Friday - and so I picked an easy book today. Or perhaps I'm just headed coming down from my typical week-long euphoric blogging high and returning to a normal mood. Whatever the reason, I decided that today's book needed to be funny, light, and short.
Today's book - I can't find a description of today's book that makes it sound even remotely interesting, so instead I will share an excerpt from the foreword, "I was not abused, abandoned, or locked up as a child. My parents were not alcoholics, nor were they ever divorced or dead. We did not live in poverty, or in misery, or in an exotic country. I am not a misunderstood genius, a former child celebrity, or the child of a celebrity. I am not a drug addict, sex addict, food addict, or recovered anything. If I indeed had a past life, I have no recollection of who I was. I have no survived against all odds. I have not lived to tell. I have not witnessed the extraordinary. This is my story."
Shallow thoughts:
- I remember, just as I was sitting down to write today's blog entry, that I have already read a book similar to today's book earlier this year. I guess I am a predictable reader. I think that I am reading something that is fresh and different, only to find out mid-way through that I continue to gravitate towards the same kind of books over and over again. But, fortunately for me, today's book was much better than the one I read earlier this year. Today's book was light and fun and amusing - but not the kind of book you would enjoy if you don't like hearing all the little details of someone else's thought process (although a case could be argued that if you don't like that sort of thing you have come to the wrong blog.)
- At one point the author shares that her father-in-law has informed her that the letters of her maiden name can also spell "Hearty Salmon" and "Nasty Armhole." - I'm not even going to pretend that I didn't waste ridiculous amounts of time today on trying to figure out if my name spells anything. And then, failing that, switching to trying to see if using Angie instead of Angela would produce better results. Perhaps this is the reason that I so often come to the end of the day and end up thinking, What did I do with my time today? It's truly sad how often I am unable to come up with an answer.
- Then there is that inevitable moment that comes when reading a book of this nature, in which I recognize a trait I thought only I had. The author is discussing the way she listens to CDs, "And going back to those two or three favorite songs - I feel bad listening to them exclusively, that's somehow cheating. I must listen to the CD in its entirety, to not play favorites so to speak, and when those killer tunes come on, well, I've earned the privilege." - Reading that excerpt made me feel slightly more normal, followed by slightly sad because I like being odd. Being normal is boring - and I know that for a fact because in junior high I spent one entire year working on a project I called "An Experiment in Being Normal." It lasted for all of 8th grade and included ridiculous attempts to blend which resulted in me being so thoroughly bored out of my mind that I vowed to never even attempt to be normal again. In short (oops, too late for that) normal is not my scene.
- Favorite passage, "Upon hearing that a friend of mine saw a bad movie, a movie I knew would be bad and never would have gone to see myself, I think, Of course that movie sucked. How could you have thought it wouldn't? You are sheeplike to have gone to see it in the first place. This is definitely going to affect our friendship." - Perhaps I just enjoy that passage because it makes me feel better about all of the things I regularly confess here on my blog that make me look kind of mean. I will always like a person who can admit to their own meanness over a person who pretends to be perfect - and so I couldn't help but enjoy today's book.
