The wonderful world of books.

I was in a terrible mood the other day for reason I'd rather not go into. 

I headed straight to Borders and picked up a memoir.

My favorite genre.

For some reason, whenever I'm frustrated with my life or feel like life just isn't going my way it always help to read the thoughts of someone who has had it much worse. When I put down the book I have a spring in my step and the world looks much cheerier and hopeful than when I first sat down.

Jbear looked at me terribly shocked when I confessed this to him.

It isn't that I enjoy comparing myself to other people with wretched lives and deciding I have it much better, it's that the people who are able to write about the darkest times of their lives are those who are able to laugh it off and somehow find comedy in the whole ordeal. Quite the feat. It's difficult to find something to smile about when you're upset, but these authors are able to turn their tragedies into interesting, amusing anecdotes that teach you're never going to be able to enjoy life and feel free until you are able to laugh at yourself a bit. 

They are inspiring stories of hope.

I actually walked into Borders to look at travel guides but ended up reading though the entirety of Carrie Fischer's Wishful Drinking in one sitting. The title reminds me of Augusten Burroughs's Wishful Thinking (he is one of my go-to's in times like these). Both rather similar, alcoholics who meddled with drugs, lived through some outrageous ordeals and survived to tell their tales in the most humorous fashion.

 

Bee mentioned it last week so I decided to give it a try.

Around 2 years ago, I was sitting in a dreary room in front of a telephone trying to persuade some rather irritable strangers to buy tickets to her show (on which the book is based). Unfortunately, no one listened to me, not even myself. Now I really wished I attended the show! Drat! This exact same feeling flooded me when I realized Passing Strange moved onto Broadway before I could finish up midterms and see the show everyone was raving about. I must buy season tickets to the Berkeley Rep so I will never feel this way again.

To summarize what I got from the book:

*Carrie Fischer, best known for her role in Star Wars, was a product of Hollywood inbreeding.
*Poor Carrie had a very complex family scandal tree which she conveniently draws out in the book. *Her mother is Debbie Reynolds, best known for her role in Singing in the Rain (moses supposes his toeses are roses, moses supposes erroneously... that one. oh yes, with Gene Kelly.), sounds like a delightful woman. 

*Her father is Eddie Fischer, a crooner that husbands should keep their wives away from.

*Carrie has a knack for turning men bald and gay.

*One of George W. Bush's many talents is farting on demand.

*Carrie was diagnosed as manic depressive and has more recently undergone ECT, electroshock therapy, which has made her forget many things so the book is filled with bits of rediscoveries about her life. 

*Hollywood ain't so great.

*Her show was a smash and I missed it.

So.... Berkeley Rep Tickets?
Rita Moreno (Anita, West Side Story)
has a show May 13-June 12, 2011.

This one.