Week 3: Big Fish

This week's book:
Big Fish
By Daniel Wallace

I am going to be honest here. I ended up being at some sort of car dealership three days in a row last week, which was, of course, right smack dab in the middle of our little princess's nap time. This led to three days of no naps for a tired two year old and a Mama who didn't have a moment to sit down to ride the stationary bike or read. Long story short, Big Fish was this week's book due to length. It's only 180 pages long so it's a pretty quick read...for most people.

I picked up the book at Goodwill a while ago. You will see a trend that i love buying books at Goodwill, but HATE HATE HATE buying books full price. There is a reason there is a free library in my front yard....free books, DUH! I'm only kidding, I wanted the kids and adults in our neighborhood to read more. But anyway, Big Fish was siting on the shelf at good old GW and I thought, "hey, you liked that movie like fifteen years ago maybe the book is even better." And there is where that thought ended for a while.

Do you ever read in the bathroom or check your phone or, I don't know, multi-task in any form while doing your business? Well, years ago, before children and when I was in college, I would read when I was doing my thang. I never had time to freely read because I was always studying....like always. But I would allow myself to freely read when using the loo. Due to children never letting me go "potty" by myself (the myth is real, guys, never do I go to the bathroom by myself, EVER) and the fact that they love to throw things into the toilet, I had to carve out other times of the day to read. It's now normally the ten minutes the hubby is rocking my daughter to sleep at night after i have read the Pout Pout Fish and Good Night Moon for the hundredth time. For this manner of reading, it needs to be a book with short chapters or chapters that are broken into parts. Stand-up comedians' books are the best for this style of reading, but Big Fish worked too.

If you don't know the plot of big fish, here it is. The author's father is a kind of traveling salesmen. The father tells great tall tales and makes people laugh. If I am going to be honest, it's sweet that the author wrote this book, because if you ask me the dad is a poop who never is home, and when he is around he's telling "tales". The father is dying of cancer and the son moves home to spend time with his dad or help his mom, it isn't clear in the book.

As an endorsement if you should read the book, I don't know. I know people say "oh the book was better" but in this case it's not true. I love Tim Burton and Ewen McGregor so very much and they are what makes the story work. Tim Burton makes weird, amazing movies, and this film is understated but still magical and moving. The book is a bit disjointed and hard to follow, and not in a fun way, but in a way which makes it hard to find the book's magic. It's going into the Little Free Library right after I finish writing this.