Laughable Loves

 Laughable Loves by Milan Kundera
1999
Weight: 9.1 oz
Method of Disposal: Leaving in Lending Library

How is it that Milan Kundara was one of my favorite authors at some point?  I really did not enjoy this book at all.  I do think he is an excellent writer, but he treats women like trash and there is never a believable woman character.  They are all just receptacles for toxic masculinity and potentially ejaculate, depending on how successful the deplorable, inhumane male characters are.  I hated it.

Other People's Love Letters

Other People's Love Letters: 150 Letters You Were Never Meant to See edited by Bill Shapiro

2007

Weight: 1.4 lbs

Method of Disposal: Donating

This book was great.  It made me feel all the feelings out there! Maybe, most of all, it made me want to write my wife a love letter and then cherish her and then feel so lucky to have found her.  I really was grateful that the editor included letters about sex, fucking, illness, divorce, family, dating, war, peace.  The letters ranged from the early 1900s and on.  There were letters from a mom to a daughter's lover, from an ex to an ex, rejections, marriages, loss.  It really had almost everything.  I am really inclined not to give this book away. but I am.  I want it to bring someone else the joy it brought me.  

When I saw the drawing above I thought it was an adorable thing for a man to do for his mildred.  I wondered if he had heart issues or if he just exercised every morning. It wasn't until many pages and much later that I read the following, and I cried and cried and cried.

There were others that were happier and also wonderful:

And some that were unimaginable--that I hope I never ever have to know what it would be like...

James and the Giant Peach

James and the Giant Peach  Roald Dahl
1961
Weight: 4 oz
Method of Disposal: Leaving in a Book Lending Box

Does anyone understand dreaming and magic like Roald Dahl?  It is difficult to get rid of any of his books because of the way that just thinking about them makes me feel.  So many childhoods have been influenced and changed by his books and the movies created because of them, mine included.  Unfortunately, I cannot only get rid of books I hate.  If I do that, I will still have hundreds and my goal will never be achieved.

Lately, I am prone to daydreaming and feel like I am living in a reality that is slightly askew and slightly magical.  The pleasure is so intense it creates a tinge of pain.  The kind that is best mates with longing.  How could I be so lucky?  The kind of luck that might get you killed.  I am driving in my car, living in a dream, and have no idea, when I get to Point B, what happened to the time I spent getting away from Point A.  The kind of luck that makes you forget to open a door before you walk through it.  My memories are interlaced with my fantasies.  My perception of time has no bearing on man made clocks.  I can no longer find myself in words.  Modern dance seems to be the only working mirror I can find.  I watch, slack jawed, while others move through this ethereal place.  I don't know how to dance.  Just dream.  This is what it feels like to be smitten.