Girls just wanna have fun,

and sometimes they ride
trains to other countries instead.

It was a long hard road up the mountain. The summit close and pointed sharp in an endless blue sky. Air was a spiders web, thin and twisting along my lips.

A few more steps to freedom from the pull back down. A few more steps to a sit at the top of the world and think pretty as sat there, cross legged and arrogant. It was right there, just one more...

But such a mountain of book, could never hold up under the weight of such arrogant words, and so I slipped and fell fell..... fell, to the bottom of the TBR pile;

with no choice but to start again~


(here's to adding to your mountain!) :P

The box-o-books arrived safely today, and, yes, has given quite a boost to my TBR piles - many thanks! (There's an inscription from a previous owner, from 2010: "To Elizabeth, with best wishes for your 'Arc de Triomphe'!" I wonder what that's about?)

I found the book itself to be a charming - and sometimes moody - travel-journal, with a mix of illustrations and text that helps impart the artist's thoughts. There are some photos, too, including one of the author's cat - recently deceased {sniffle}: "it was devastatingly sad, but also kind of funny, in a horrifying way".

The travel journal includes tourist destinations, of course (including a photo of Oscar Wilde's tomb in Pere Lachaise, which I visited myself years ago), but also features people - old friends and new, family members and strangers, interesting people seen on the street... clearly there's an artist's eye at work. [She doesn't eschew the artwork of others; there's a funny bit where she's visited the Musee d'Orsay, and includes a sketch of "Garcon et Chat", "one of the sweetest, funniest paintings. Combines my love of cats and naked boys!"

There are lovely descriptions of food - and poignant descriptions of being homesick, worried about the future, and otherwise being fretful. But the downer moods don't last, and overall it's a great way to visit by proxy.

I left this book in the Hippo free-newspaper box at the door of A&E Roastery, a coffee-and-tea shop in the square, at around 5:30 or so; hope the finder enjoys it!

*** Released as part of the 2015 Wine+Food+BXing release challenge. ***

*** Released as part of the 2015 Oh the Places We Can Go challenge, for French Creek. ***

*** Released as part of the 2015 Keep Them Moving release challenge. ***