Meet Walter Mitty.

He's a Husband.

He's a Captain of a Navy ship

He's a toughest man on the trial

He's the man who can a woman from distress and is a hero to all man kind.

He's also worrying his wife, his co-workers, his boss and his shrink.

Walter Mitty has dreams. Dreams of being a hero. But he's not dreaming them in bed, like everyone else is. He's dreaming these events while driving, while shopping, talking to his wife, walking down the street. He "sees" himself as a hero to everyone, but doesn't really do anything about it. He's just your average Joe that is taking his wife to get her hair done. And while she is getting her hair done, he runs errands. But everyday life, everything that we see, feel, touch, hear generates this scene in his head where he is the hero to the story and he's living it right then and there!! While everyone looks at him like he's weird, he doesn't see what wrong with this!!

As a writer I was thrilled that I am not the only person that this is happening too!!! I can't tell you how many times I will be sitting at the Library that I work at and there will be an event that will take place, or someone says something to me and it triggers a scene playing in my head and I'm living that story out (in my head of course). I am a writer and I am always getting scenarios playing out in my head that sometimes leave me speechless until I am writing that out in my laptop. Sometimes I talk out loud the scenes but hey, I'm a writer it's allowed. (I think....)

Books read: 9

Library books: 7

Owned books: 1

Borrowed books: 1

Novels: 6

Graphic novels: 2

Memoir: 1

1001 list books: 5

In translation: 3

Women authors: 4

A good month for me!

An odd little story full of wordplay.

What happens when the letter O is banned?  Chas! Cnfusin!

Much of the text has a singsong quality--but not all of it. A little uneven. I would actually love to see this performed on stage. It could make a great high school performance, as it would be quite short and the wordplay would be very fun.

These are the books that came this week without the fanfare of a big blue Belgian bag.  Despite their quiet arrival in their nondescript, brown cardboard envelopes (which sounds lewd when I write it like that) I am incredibly excited about each one of them:

The Unknown Unknown: Bookshops and the Delight of Not Getting What You Wanted - Mark Forsyth - I've already gushed about this perfect little joyous ode to bookshops; it's my first 5 star read of the year - all 31 pages of it.

Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World - Mark Miodownik - I've been seeing this in my local bookshops, but a review by, of all people, Bill Gates was the tipping point for me (I say 'of all people' because I'm all Apple, all the time). He wrote a very good review of this one and he liked What If? so I'm going with it.

The Etymologicon: A Circular Stroll through the Hidden Connections of the English Language - Mark Forsyth - he who wrote The Unknown Unknown.  If this one is half as good as that one, I'm gonna be a fangirl.

My Life and Hard Times - James Thurber - this one is an upgrade of the slim paperback I currently own and an eBay bargain.  I'm in love with the Folio editions with their individual slipcovers; eBay has become a dangerous place for me...

Total books received: 17

Books read: 6

Total physical TBR: 194

Oh boy, I'm gonna break the 200 book barrier soon... must read faster (and shop slower)!

Deducted 1/2 star for being too short.  Otherwise an excellent example of midcentury, midwestern humor excellently written.

This slim volumes reads as a collection of short essays about the early part of Thurber's life and his eccentric family.  I won't go so far as to say they are laugh-out-loud funny, but they are very humorous.  I'll be looking at his other works in the future with a much more open mind.