Ode to Mr. Shoop

My high school Yearbook teacher, Mr. Shoop, always said that in order to be a good writer you must first be a good reader.  That's always stuck with me, so as I attempt to get back to writing regularly I picked out a new book for inspiration. 

I am guilty of judging books by their covers and the billowy clouds on A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers drew me in a year or two ago at Borders or Barnes & Nobles.  Then it sat on my bedside table for who knows how long - long enough for my American Bulldog, Moose, to go nuts with separation anxiety and take it out on everything that had piled up on my nightstand.  Mr. Egger's heartbreaking work laid strewn all over the house with a guilty pup cowering in the corner.

Luckily, my dear sister loaned me her copy and I embarked on this printed journey last night...nearly a year after the I fell for the cover.  I am only xxiv pages into the Acknowledgements and caught myself laughing so hard that I snorted out loud.  Good stuff.  Sure sign of enjoyment - snort-out-loud laughing!