Book Junky

I spent this weekend with my friend Kylie being a dork. We baked and watched movies and went bowling. But my favorite activity by far was our trip to the local Goodwill where many treasures can be found. I’ve never been to Goodwill before. I’ve been to several Salvation Army stores but this was my first time in Goodwill. To my delight I found the most wonderful hand-me-downs anyone could ever imagine: books.

That’s right, I found books. People apparently donate everything to Goodwill, not just clothing. Kylie is no stranger to the wonders to be found in the Goodwill store, but for me this was a new and exciting experience. I found two of my favorite books for 99cents each. I also bought a book that my brother read a while back that I have been meaning to read for a while now. On top of that I counted twenty-one Danielle Steel books (if you weren’t a Literary Arts major at Lincoln Park you have no idea why that pleases me, and probably never will). It pretty much made my entire weekend.

My delightful experience at Goodwill got me thinking; why is it that books give me such a thrill? It’s not just the stories they hold. I don’t even have to read a book for it to make me happy. Just looking at the books puts a smile on my face. Something about their presence, the way they take up space, makes me feel good. I’m not sure I can explain it.

It’s so much different when you try to read something on a computer. It’s not the same thing a bit. Having the words in your hands, on the paper, with real weight behind them, makes all the difference in the world. My mom mentioned to me about getting a Kindle or some other form of e-reader, but even she knows that I love books. However easier it may be to have all my books in e-book form it may be, however cheaper, or neater, or more convenient I don’t think I could stand it. I actually have trouble reading things online. I think it’s because there are too many distractions. I can do anything on my computer. Maybe it would be different with a simple e-reader, but I’m not so sure. I think it would bug me; staring at one single screen as I scroll through the pages.

In my junior year of high school I got to take a book binding class. I kind of suck at it, to be honest, but I did enjoy it, for the most part. I have most of the books I made sitting on one of my shelves empty of content. In the second semester I had to make an artist’s book. That was… interesting. I decided to mutilate a book I already owned, rather than making one from scratch. I picked a book I had gotten in a box of hand-me-down books that I’d never bothered to read. I burned the page edges and poured water over it to get some water stains. I then found the middle of the book and glued blue and red paper there to separate the two sides. On one side I cut the kanji for fire into the pages and on the other side I cut the kanji for water. It took FOREVER. @_@ It wasn’t nearly as fun as I thought it would be… if I ever thought it would be fun at all. My fingers hurt from holding the exacto knife and I hurt myself numerous times, but after much literal blood, sweat and tears, it actually turned out pretty cool. I realized soon after starting, however, that I should have carved and then burned. Every day I got charred paper everywhere. You’d think I’d have learned my lesson from that experience, wouldn’t you? Nope. For my final project I decided to make a book box with a book that went inside it. Why? No idea! But I did it. It sucked too. Moving on.

I believe I’ve mentioned my semi-obsessive personality already. If not, I have one, so there. However it may seem there are really only a few things I obsess over. Purple is naturally at the top but books come in close second. Maybe it comes from being a writer. Maybe it comes from being a Farkas. Either way they’re in my blood in the worst sort of way. If there is such a thing as a book junky, I’m it.

We're All Mad Here

One of my favorite things of all time is the Cheshire Cat. I absolutely adore him in nearly all the forms he takes. He’s such a fun character. He’s completely neutral and serves only to point Alice in a random direction so the story can continue. Since I have such a history with this story and it plays a key role in some of my fondest memories, I thought I would tell you all about it.

We all know the story. A little girl from Victorian England fallows a rabbit down a rabbit hole and somehow ends up in the crazy messed up world of Wonderland. We follow her as she makes her way around the world, encountering strange people and creatures and eating food that makes you grow and drinking drinks that make you shrink. The Alice story was originally written by Lewis Carroll who was kind of a pervert. I once wrote a paper on him, for a History fair I believe. He liked little girls, but not little boys, and pretty much no one else. He actually based Alice on a girl named Alice Little who he used to play with. Yeah, he was a creep. At any rate, it’s a good story, though he was probably high while writing it. It’s become a classic, as has its sequel Through the Looking Glass.

There have been a lot of adaptations of the story in both film and play. The most well know, obviously is the Disney version of Alice in Wonderland, the animated version. The version we grew up with. I will admit that I didn’t like the movie when I was young, and really, I’m still not a huge fan. It scared me as a child and I hated seeing Alice crying in the dark because it made me feel sad. When I got older and actually read the books it bothered me for another reason. It’s dumb, but it bothers me that they smashed the books together and just called it Alice in Wonderland. I realize that they do that in like every version, but still, it drove me nuts. At any rate, that was that. The new movie pleases me much more. Again, they took elements from both books, but this time I can forgive them because it wasn’t Wonderland either. It was Underland that she called Wonderland, there for it’s an entirely different matter and since it’s all in her head anyway, they can be smooshed together. I really loved the movie though. I’m a huge Johnny Depp fan so that helped. His mad hatter was brilliant~ I’m a fool for a Scottish accent. The whole idea of taking the story we know and love, twisting the characters a bit, and putting a nineteen-year-old Alice into the middle of the whole thing was a lot of fun. Adults react differently than children do and even though Alice is more sensible now, she still holds enough childishness inside her to get by in this crazy messed up world. As the opening suggests, I’m also incredibly fond of the Cheshire Cat. He’s so much fun to watch and read and act. He can do pretty much anything that he wants but doesn’t because he simply doesn’t feel like it. He’s awesome!~

So I guess you’re wondering why this has special meaning to me? I did say it contributed to some of my fondest memories. Well, aside from watching it with one of my best friends in the whole world, it gave me my favorite and first leading role in a play. I was in eighth grade and in the senior drama class in my homeschooler’s group. We needed something for the History Fair and somehow we picked Alice in Wonderland for our script. Admittedly it was kind of by default that I got the part. We were all in the Co-op play and the other two girls had bigger roles than my little part as the villain’s girlfriend. So since I had the least amount to memorize for that, I got the biggest part in this; Alice. Still, a lead is a lead and I was pleased to have it. It was so much fun, too. The script was pretty much word for word from the book and I got to memorize all of it for my part. Not because I had to, just because that’s how I am. I can still spout out pieces from the Cheshire Cat. We found pictures of it while getting ready for my grad party and it pleased me so much to remember it. It’s one memory I would love to relive over and over again.

So, if you haven’t read it, read it. If you haven’t watched it, watch it. It’s a fantastic and greatly amusing story that I’m rather in love with.