A Book Worth Losing Sleep Over

I read almost constantly. If I could read while in the midst of socializing, I would, but that'd just be rude, and I haven't reached that stage in my old lady-ness yet. As a result of this constant reading, I'm always looking for new things to absorb, and I have a three pages long list of recommendations that I am crossing off far too slowly.

One that I crossed off today, however, is this one:

FANGIRL by Rainbow Rowell.

I'm not even done with it yet, and it is already on my "Favorite Modern Fiction Books" list. (I have several Favorite lists, with subcategories, because I have far too many favorites to only have one list.) Anyway, I purposely chose to stay awake last night (as opposed to all the nights I don't choose it) because I really and truly almost literally could not put it down. I did put it down, and then I'd pick it back up almost immediately. I did this several times. Finally, with sandcastles in my eyes and a deep fog settling over my brain, I closed the book at 4:00am.

But then I dreamed I was still reading it!

I dreamed I was reading part of the book that wasn't even in the book. This is a little ironic, because the book is about a young woman who writes FanFic, which is what I was doing in my dream. I had created the same characters from the book and was reading a whole new story, in my dream. Pretty cool. 

Sometimes, I truly love my brain.

Rainbow Rowell, by the way, is a GENIUS. I was going to go see her a couple months ago. She had a speaking engagement thing in Anoka, but they cancelled it because of some fuddy-duddy types. I'm not going to go into the why of this, because it makes me angry, and this post isn't angry. This post is extremely happy and motivating! (At least for me.)

The coolest part is, this book was recommended to me by a young lady I met at the train station in St. Paul back in August, someone who writes FanFic herself, and as I'm a fan of FanFic, this seemed like a reliable recommendation. Plus, as it turns out, I might actually be her real mother.* The stranger sitting next to us while we awaited the by-now-six-hours-late train looked over at one point and said, "I cannot believe the two of you just met."

So thank you, V. Thank you with all the thanks I have in me.

What books have pumped you up recently? Or ever?

*Although the age deferential makes this possible, the fact that I have never given birth would make this highly improbable. Except in the land of FICTION--it could happen. Hmmm....