So I stared at my bookshelf- my bookshelf littered with supernatural romance novels from my teen days, old western novels my aunt gave me, a row of outside reading books from highschool, and a small shelf dedicated to several classics other people thought I would want. As I looked at the spine of each cover I thought to myself "Okay, that's one is good, but not the best I've read". And so then I tried to remember titles I read in college and oh my goodness guys. If you know anyone who has their degree in English or English Education or any type of literature at all you have no idea the amount of works they have read. I could barely remember. I started looking at famous novels online, checking them off rather quickly, but also with disappointment as I did not remember them as "The one" or at least one of the few I was going to put on this pointless facebook list.
Nevertheless, I did eventually come up with a few, but sharing them without the message and the stories that go along with them doesn't feel right so I decided to do so here. If I put them ALL on one post it would suck to read so I'll break it up by day- each day I post to facebook, I'll post the real story here.
Book 1:
This book may have one of the worst titles to be caught reading in public- "The Smell of Other People's Houses". No one likes the smell of other people's houses- the weird oil smell or laundry that has been sitting around. It's uncomfortable. Yet, aside from the unpleasant name the book was a good read for me mostly because it was unexpected.
In college, I had this professor who I just clicked with and I think she felt it too. I think if we had met in another capacity we would be best friends. On the last day of class, she did a white elephant with books (educators okay? Just go with it). I was the second to last person to go (which is good) and picked up a novel about the downfall of the Romanov dynasty. Everyone in the room made an "Aw, that sucks" kind of noise because who the hell wants to read about a real and failed and dead royal family?
One answer: THIS GIRL. I was so excited and caught off guard by being given a copy of a book I had been searching for on one of my favorite historical events that I squealed like an idiot in front of my peers. My excitement was infectious and unexpected and the moment became one of delight for everyone.
Another answer to who would want the lame Romanov book: The girl who was last in the game, right after me, who could have taken any other book in the room. You could literally hear the disappointment across the class as the novel I had just made a fool of myself about was taken out of my hands.
In my overly polite nature, I assured everyone it was perfectly okay and tried to back pedal from my initial excitement. I walked forward and picked up the last, unwanted, book from the group. It was this one and with a title like "The Smell of Other People's Houses" it's not hard to see why it was picked last.
To make good on my lack of ill will, I decided to read it. I normally hate regular fiction. I'm in this weird place where adult fiction doesn't do it for me, but teen fiction tries too hard. Yet, this novel was an unexpected happy place. I was moved by the stories of multiple people in powerless situations who simply try their best and struggle, but still try and are ultimately successful with connecting to others in their lives. It was a beautiful read for a lack of a better word that was not trying to be anything other than what it is and gave me hope for fiction books that are not YA.
And just to elaborate on that white elephant story: My professor contacted me the next day so disheartened by having the Romanov book taken away from me (even though that's how White Elephant works) and got me a copy of that book to pick up. So I guess I kind of lucked into this book and ended up with two! :)
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