The Joy Of Daily Life

Since we were already talking about books, and since the holiday season is coming up (which can ultimately only mean hours on hours of sporadic stints of boredom we will no doubt incur while attempting to enjoy "family time" or lack thereof), I thought I would throw out a book that I have found to help pass time pretty quickly. In some cases, faster than watching TV. Yeah, I know.

Anyways, I guess I'm going to tell you all about this amazing book. My first encounter with The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing, was fateful at best, a lucky choice at worst. I found it - actually, it is safer to say it found me - face up, at the top of the 99 cent bin outside Berda Paradise, this tiny secondhand thrift store in Silverlake, staring at me. I picked it up because I liked the cover, because it was 99 cents, because I was feeling adventurous today, and because books have had a long history of never doing me wrong. While I may occasionally regret the large amounts of teen fiction fluff I have accumulated over my cheap, sex deprived high school years, I've never regretted the light, thrilling - dare I say zesty - feelings I got while reading them.

I ended up spending far too much money at Berda Paradise that day...my purchases included a tweed micro-mini skirt (that I can only wear with tights to even attempt to undermine the supreme Lolita schoolgirl effect its hem length - or supreme lack thereof - gives me), an original Billie Holiday record, and a yellow sweater, but by far the cheapest purchase was The Girl's Guide.

That night I found myself at Pizza Hut, knee deep in that fifteen to twenty minute time slot they give you for your pizza to be made. In my desperation, I opened The Girl's Guide and began reading. Suddenly I found myself wrapped up in someone else's reality. The book is about Jane Rosenal, a feisty, intelligent, and humorous woman in the 21st century, and chronicles different periods of her life. It begins with her at fourteen, already smoking, trying to make sense of her brother's new girlfriend and the world around her through careful observance and attention to detail.

The frankness with which Melissa Banks (the beloved author) can shape a completely fictional character's life is perhaps the best indicator of a woman who has seen it all, or perhaps even lived some of it. Before I read this book, I believed the qualifications for a "good read" included a love triangle, teen sex and/or premature drug use, a few lies, a complicated plot, and at least ten different characters to weave in and out of the tale. But this book changed that. It highlights the subtle and often looked-over little nuances in daily life that sort of build up and create the way our life is as a whole. The look you give someone, the lilt in someone's voice, the way she holds her pen, or how he gets his coffee; all of these little idiosyncrasies play a much bigger role in what makes a story brilliant and relatable, and this book taught me that.

For a month straight all I did was read this book. In between classes, during my 15 and 30 minute lunch breaks at work, while waiting in the car at drive-thrus, basically anywhere. I found a joy in reading this book that I had never had before. It was as if Jane Rosenal was real, and I was solely privy to her life. I had to know what would happen next and I tried to make sense of a book about making sense of yourself.

Girls, this book changed my life. It changed my outlook on things. It changed the way I think. I guarantee your boredom will fly by if you read this. But it's more than a boredom buster for me. It's a guide to hunting and fishing in every sense of the word.

The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing
By Melissa Banks
at Barnes and Noble
at Amazon
at Borders

E