The Book I Wish I Wrote Award This Year Goes To...

Last week I treated myself to my friend Keri's new book How To Be an Explorer of the World. I am nominating it for the Book I Wish I Wrote Award for the year. If I was into qualifying it somehow, and I am not saying I am, but if I was, I might just MIGHT call it a masterpiece. I say MIGHT, because as all of you probably know ALL her books are beautiful, useful, and inspired. To nail it down to ONE masterpiece is hard, but I'll just say this is my F-A-V-O-R-I-T-E. It is not only visually INCREDIBLE, it is something that makes you stand in the center of your world, be it a forest or a parking lot, and turn it UPSIDE DOWN (literally) or at least make it interesting. Since this is a subject that I feel passionately about, I can't help but want to tell everyone about it.

As it turns out, I don't have to. All I have to do is read it in a public place and the book speaks for itself. I was sitting on the subway reading it at rush hour and the three women who were either sitting next to me on either side or standing above me asked me about the book. "What IS that book you are reading?" One of them said and another piped up: "I know--I've been gawking at it over your shoulder--it looks amazing." When I told them one lady asked for the author's last name and I said "Smith" she said, "Oh." I suggested she write down the book and she did.

Inspired by this book I have been on collecting missions. I have been collecting shadows (pictured above), red things, blue things, green things, yellow things. I have always wanted to go grocery shopping with John Cage, and now I can. What I love most about this book is that it does what the best of inspiration and/or creativity books can do: It propels you not into a new world, but into the world you already live in, but haven't yet discovered. Think of this book as a passport. Trust me, it's a great trip.