And it has a talking gorilla. How can you go wrong.

A friend of mine was down a few weeks ago and was in the middle of reading this book. I was shocked because, other myself, I hadn't met another person who had even heard of "Ishmael".

Weird because I think it's a pretty well known book.

At any rate, I hadn't read it in awhile so I decided to reread it.

So every night before I go sleep, I read a chapter. Man, it's a good book. Makes you think. And it reminds me how clever we are sometimes.

Us human with all our ideas. Our delicious little theories about the world. Of how things began. Of how things are. Of how we dream things will be.

Anyway, this is the kind of book that, once you look past the talking gorilla -or maybe because of him - you get this tiny, tingling sense in the pit of your belly. The kind of feeling you get when you observe amazing acts of courage. Or when you look into your child's eyes for the first time. Or when, despite all the wrong choices that would have been a hell of a lot easier, you do the right thing. It gives me that kind of feeling. I think the kids are calling it "hope" these day. Hope because if one person can see the world this way then maybe there's a chance for rest of us.

And, yes, hope makes my belly tingle. I don't know why. But, for me, happiness makes me wanna bake bread and the smell of air conditioning reminds me of success - so I think I'm a little off to begin with.

Really, I often wonder if I'm playing with a full deck. Maybe the lights are on but nobody's home, if you know what I mean. One nut short of a nut farm.

Okay, the last one doesn't make much sense. I don't even think nuts grown on farm. In fact I don't know what nuts grow from. They're just nuts. In my world, there are nut fairies that just magically make them appear at my neighborhood grocery store.

See, what I mean. I'm a mad woman.

Anyway, as I was saying, go out and buy it. Or borrow it. Or steal it.

Well, nix the Winona Ryder bit. Don't steal it. Unless it's from one of those big, corporate book chains that cater to the man. Then it's okay.

Whatever your chosen method of acquisition, get it. Read it. Let it marinate a bit and see how differently you'll view the world.

Then you can thank me :)

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