015: Wake me up before you go go

Jitterbug...

Jitterbug...

This goal had nothing to do with Wham!(period) It is however about a book that put the boom boom into my heart.

My not-best-friend, Mary, turned me on to Tom Robbins' Jitterbug Perfume one sunny day on the beach at LBI. I can safely say that discovering the book was the best part of that weekend, somewhere in between the cripplingly painful sun poisoning and finding sand in all my nooks and crannies.

The epic love story, replete with it's haunting naughty passages and clever metaphors, quickly jumped to the top of a list that includes Lolita, A Clockwork Orange, and Brave New World. (Not to sound too academically pretentious, I've also developed a more recent passion for the Harry Potter series and the Twilight Saga.)

Just a week or so ago, I stumbled into a used book store on Prince Edward Island in a vain attempt to get a few moments of quiet time during a family vacation. Moments before my mother found me and dragged me back to 24-hour-a-day family bonding, I found a hardbound copy of Jitterbug Perfume. The surprise was opening the cover up and discovering that it WAS the illusive First Edition, First Printing that I'd hoped to stumble on one day. I took my lucky strike, and my $10 (Canadian), and walked out with a new prized possession.

The book seems to retail around $65 in mint condition, which mine is not. But this copy does have the worn, Velveteen Rabbit quality that I always love to call my own.