lately i’ve been tearing through a great gob of books like a madwoman, i don’t know what the deal is– escapism probably. it’s working. i did the same thing when i was a fat little girl who no one liked so much, crawl into my books and nobody could hurt you, it didn’t matter. because the books were your friends and the pages never made fun of you.

The Phantom Tollbooth
I got this book from andrea for my birthday a few years ago. it’s not the book i thought it was. i thought it was the book about zachary zwinkle (or whatever his name is) and the zetabet. i was wrong. however, about mid-way through “the phantom tollbooth” i remembered reading it as a kid. the book is magical. i can see why i loved it. it’s about color and sound and words and it’s so, so, so wonderful. the way norton juster plays with language is absolutely captivating. this is one of those books that you read as an adult and get much more out of it than you ever could as a child.

The Thief of Always
i read this book because it’s one of the outlaw’s all time favorites. i’d never read anything by clive barker before. i’m not sure about “the thief of always” yet. i guess, i really want to talk to the outlaw about it. why he thinks it’s so fabulous. i thought it was imaginative and entertaining, but to make the top five? i’m not sure about that. but, perhaps i missed something. maybe if i ever get to talk to the outlaw he’ll shed some light on this book.

Beautiful Girls
i bought this book because of the name. the movie of the same name is on my top five desert island movies. so i just had to buy it. i don’t regret it one bit. it’s a book of short stories about girls of varying degrees of beauty. i like stories about girls and women and looks.

Happiness
Will Ferguson’s satire about self-help and the publishing industry is cute. i enjoyed it in a light-hearted, watching will and grace sort of way. it’s not totally earth shattering. it wasn’t so moving and so inciteful i wanted to wet my pants. but it is a bit thought provoking with all the happiness and how that might end the word. i really like some of the stuff ferguson says about joy being a something you experience in tiny bits when it happens and not a constant state of being. the book is really fun. one of those books you want someone you know to read so you can talk about it. sadly, nobody i know has read this book. i think my favorite part of the book was how two characters, edwin and may, keep using untranslatables like “mokita: the truth which no one speaks; mono-no-aware: the sadness of things; and razbliuto: the feelings you have for someone you once loved, but now do not.”