I am addicted to books. Not necessarily reading them, but buying them. Eventually I will read all of them, but I do not see that day being in the near future.
I day dream about having one of those libraries in my house that you see in old movies, like My Fair Lady, with a second and third floor, ladders, desks and chairs! Oh my! That would be my dream.
I walk into a library and I get excited. I am so not aloud to go into The Tattered Cover or Barnes and Nobel all by myself. I get into BIG trouble!
So far, WICKED: TheLife and Times of TheWicked Witch of the West: a novel written by
Gregory Maguire is my favorite book! Which is not surprising, after all, my favorite movie is Wizard of Oz.
Gregory Maguire writes wonderful spins of old stories, like CINDERELLA and SNOW WHITE. And that is exactly what he does with WICKED.
The story is told from the Wicked Witch of The West's side. How she grew up, how she met Glinda, and all about the Munchkins and Dorothy.
The book has become such a hit that they turned it into a Broadway Musical as well.
Here are some wonderful quotes from the book:
“She didn’t know what she thought. Was Elphaba devil’s spawn? Was she half-elf? Was she punishment for her father’s failure as a preacher or for her mother’s sloppy morals and bad memory? Or was she merely a physical ailment, a blight like a misshapen apple or a five legged calf? Nanny knew her worldview was foggy and chaotic, pestered by demons, faith, and folk science.” (31)
“The first wave of discussion about Elphaba concerned her wardrobe and her evident poverty, as if her classmates were above noticing her sickly and sickening color” (74)
“”The creatures of makeshift lives, the hobbled together, the disenfranchised and the abused: the Lion, the Scarecrow, the maimed Tin Woodman. Up from the shadows for an instant, up into the light; then back. The Goddess of Gifts the last, reaching in among flames and water, cradling her, crooning something, but the words remain unclear.” (403)
