The Happy Hooker and Me

I love to read. I can go through a book in a day and would, if I could. (sigh) So many books, so little time. Like all addictions, this one too has to be monitored. I try to stay away from Barnes and Noble so my kids can eat on a regular basis. I won't even type up the word Amazon.com if I can help it. I don't want to think about how easy it would be to spend hundreds of dollars with the click of a mouse.

Although sometimes I do window shop there, making sure my debit card isn't anywhere near the computer. I'm weak, what can I say.My favorite reads are usually froth. Delicious, fun froth (my applogies to the authors for using this term). It really is a compliment... really! Froth is wonderful. It's life escaping.

Most of the time, I couldn't tell you the main character's name after I've finished the book (from no fault of the authors), but I can tell you whether it left me smiling or marvelling at the authors imagination. Some of the premises/plots that writers come up with make me feel soooo damn unimaginative.

I mean... what are they doing exactly when some of these ideas pop into their heads? What makes somebody think of creating a character who is ~ single, young and newly undead, AND is a vampire with a penchant for shoes? (Mary Janice Davidson ) I can remember the first time I realized that there were extremely witty, clever people out there in the world and that I wasn't one of them.

I was a teenager watching "The Happy Hooker." Yea.. that's what I said. Hey I was 16 or something... cut me some slack. Anyway, the scene that led to the sad realization that I was not one of these imaginative, creative minds was when Xavier Hollander (yes, I remember her name.. who forgets a name like that?!) was stripping for some corporate mogul a Wall Street or stock guy and he just wasn't responding... (men not responding HA! see we know this is fiction, but anyway)... She is standing on the Board Room conference table half undressed and sees his utter look of boredom and stops. To make a long story short, she then starts stripping again while talking about the Dow Jones rising and something took a dip in the market, etc. etc. and that more than does the trick (no pun intended) for him. A stupid movie, a generally forgettable scene to most. I sat there marvelling at the writers. I still marvel at writers.

I've been browsing J-Land alot lately... both the AOL Journals and the more private Blogger site we use, and every once in a while I stumble across a writer that takes me back to that Xavier moment. And I marvel, read in awe, just a wee bit wistful that I don't have the author's gift.

My self whining doesn't last for long because fortunately journals are free so it looks like there'll be dinner AND desert this month. Sometimes Life is just sooooo good!