Friday, August 27, 2010

Booking It


The summer is the best time to grab a book and exercise your mind and in some cases your lips...should you move your lips when you read.

Books are great because they can take you away to places you’ve never been before. The book I just finished reading is called “Shantaram.” It is epic in thoughts, experiences, and size. It’s a 925 page memoir about a man who becomes a drug addict and commits armed robbery, is sent to prison, escapes prison over the wall in broad daylight, smuggles himself into India, lives in the slums of Bombay, befriends the mafia…and that’s what happens by page 225…with 700 pages to go.

I wish I could write a book…but I don’t believe I have a book in me. Most often authors will write about something they have extensive knowledge of, or about their unusual life experiences…or even some epiphany they’ve had. My life experiences would NOT be filed under “wild and exotic.” And I’m waiting for an epiphany. (Gesundheit) Apparently my material is best suited for a blog…read in snippets while checking your email.

Anywhooo……………

There are some subjects I wouldn’t choose to read…Harlequin romance, western, and espionage…Oh, and any big fat book about the Industrial Revolution…like Uncle Al reads.

My favorite books are those based on fact/memoir. For example, “The Passion of Artemesia,” “Loving Frank,” “Shantaram,” “The Other Boleyn Girl.” “The Glass Castle,” “Eat, Love, Pray,” and “A Million Little Pieces.” Although James Frey who wrote “A Million Little Pieces” fabricated most of it. (Oprah took care of him and ripped him into a million little pieces on her show.)

Wait…I feel an idea surfacing….Maybe I could write a book about the time I bought a new pair of Nike Air sneakers. They just felt so comfortable that I headed out the door and started running…with no direction in mind. I kept running and running, for no particular reason, and before I knew it…I was in Ohio. Wait, I think that’s Forrest Gump’s story.

It’s just that my real story lacks the same excitement: I bought some new sneakers at Bob’s and went for a run around the high school track…4 laps.

See what I mean…I don’t have a book in me.

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