For a book crosser

RELEASE NOTES:

Being sent to a BXer.

One of a two-copy deal (the other copy can be found here) direct from the author, with the inscription "Enjoy the ride." From the first glances, it looks exciting. I'll be keeping this copy for a while at least.

I'm trying to keep a running list of authors I've read who are also BookCrossers. So far on my shelf I have:

The Goat by Greyflank
The Sea Shack by Beowulf77
Writer Ferrets (and a lot more) by Richard Bach
And of course this book. :)

I expected this book to be interesting, and I wasn’t disappointed. I devoured it in a day, glad I thought to bring it to the beach on my vacation. Amazing, full of insights and humor. I could really see some of the places described in my mind’s eye, though I hope to see the Grand Canyon in person someday. I will be checking out Markeroni, and looking for nearby markers when I can. I’ll also bookmark WhiteRaven’s Livejournal. I doubt I’ll make the 2007 BC Convention, but I got to see her at the 2006 Con in Canada, and hope we can both make London in 2008.

I’m young, but I’ve picked up part of my musical tastes from my mother, including the songs of the Eagles. The image of Linda standing on that famous corner in Winslow, Arizona, deciding whether to wait for better weather, give up, ship her bike home and find another way to travel, or risk her life in the storm ahead really drew me in.

Throughout the book, I could feel Linda’s trepidation about the journey, her frustration when things went wrong, and her moments of joy and peace, her connection to friends hundreds of miles away, and a connection to Something Greater. I have never ridden a motorcycle, never really thought about it, and I’m now kinda scared to try it, but it sounds like a wonderful experience, if you’re cut out for it.

There are a lot of little bits I want to comment on, so I'll be adding at least one more journal entry later. I've even got something neat about Burma Shave ads.

Since this book is autographed to me personally, I'll be keeping it, but I may loan it out or do a bookring. It's definitely worth the read.

In regards to Burma Shave ads, there was a real ad that said FREE! FREE!/A TRIP TO MARS/FOR JUST/ONE THOUSAND/EMPTY JARS!/BURMA SHAVE

In that vein, the magazine of Fantasy and Science fiction had a competition in April 1982, asking readers to submit their own sci-fi Burma Shave ads.

First prize went to Lawrence Watt-Evans of Lexington, KY, with the following:

AN ADDED BONUS/YOU WILL SEE/OUR JARS/STAY CLOSED IN/ZERO GEE
THERE IS NO TIME/IN HYPERSPACE/SO IT TAKES/NO TIME/TO SHAVE/ YOUR FACE
IT HELPS/SHAVE EARTHMEN/SURE ENOUGH/AND MARTIANS SAY/IT'S/TASTY STUFF!

Second prize went to Frank Bequaert of Lexington, MA, with

TIME TRAVEL BACK/FOR GOOD OR BAD/JUST DON'T DO IN/YOUR OWN GRANDDAD!
IF SIGNS LIKE THESE/ARE OUT OF SIGHT/YOU'VE JUST GONE PAST/THE SPEED/OF LIGHT

F&SF Competitions:

Competition 10: Froomb/Zotz
Competition 19: Limericks Ending With SF Titles
Competition 29: Burma Shave
Competition 31: "Strange Whine"
Competition 33: SF Redefinitions
Competition 35: Capsule Reviews
Competition 43: "Call Him Lard"
Competition 44: Asimov Cocktail
Competition 46: Titles As Acronyms
Competition 47: Alien Personals
Competition 51: Anagrams
Competition 53: Cover Copy
Competition 56: Musical SF

There were a number of quotes in the book I'd like to take a moment to comment on.

On spirituality:

I try to keep an open mind about where spirituality and inner peace can be found. It rubs off wherever it genuinely exists, and does not care about barriers and labels. It is only we humans who care about those divisions.

I think this is quite true. Many people use the name "God" when they're only talking about their own prejudices. People want a connection to something greater than themselves, but perhaps at the same time they don't want to feel small, which may be part of the reason there are so many attempts to put God in a box.

On death:

When I die, I don't want a grave. I don't want people to come and grieve over my empty shell. I want to be cremated without fuss or funeral. My ashes shall be packaged up for anyone who remembers me fondly; they can take them and scatter them to the winds whenever they choose.

My mother has asked that the song "I Can See Clearly Now" by Johnny Nash be played at her funeral. It's good to remember the happy times.

On stuffed animals:

Struck by the absurdity of a place that had charms and pendants depicting just about every native animal around, except for ravens and, indeed, anything in the corvid family, I bought my shiny plush crow and pressed its tummy button to make it caw.
There was plenty of potential here for annoying people and cats.

I have a plush wolf pup from Defenders of Wildlife. It howls when squeezed. I am not generally in the habit of naming my plushies, but this one has been given the name Louis Pine. ;)

On extraterrestrial life:

We are not alone. But we probably don't deserve, as a race, to meet our neighbors just this minute. As a race, we need to grow up.

I'm sure there's something else out there, and I sincerely hope it's smarter than most humans. I think the most dangerous thing about mankind is not that we're a race of idiots, but that some of us are smart enough to invent such things as the atomic bomb, and others are stupid enough to use them.
In the immortal words of Monty Python: pray that there's intelligent life somewhere out in space...'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth.

On hellfire-and-damnation religious tracts:

No matter what you call your higher power, I find it impossible to believe that He, She, or It would ever stoop to communicate with us like this. Every time I had felt the Divine out there on the road, every time I had sought guidance, all I'd felt was love, wisdom, and joy.
A higher power who seeks to rule us with fear, blame and threat is not divine at all. I think it is we humans who put such limits on out understanding of the Holy. The ugliness of this pamphlet was so at odds with the renewal of connection and faith I'd encountered in on my travels that it left we with a bad taste in my mouth and many more questions than I could answer. Not one of those answers would have been in the pamphlet.

Once again, the pettiness of humans poisons their relationship with the divine. I've heard people say It's not God I have a problem with, it's His fan club.

I think I'll look for the CD Linda found in her travels, "Under a Raven Moon" by Mary Youngblood.

I can't find the passage at the moment, but I seem to recall a mention in the book of attempting to take pictures of the ravens encountered on the journey, but failing every time, and the thought that perhaps some things aren't meant to be photographed. I recently took a vacation to Orange Beach, Alabama, and went shrimping with my dad. Porpoises came up alongside the boat every time we pulled in the net. I tried to take pictures of them, but got little more than fins. It was something that had to be seen firsthand.

I also loved the tail of the ringtail and the muffins. :)