This Is Not My Copy of Wonder Boys

It’s a library copy. I’ve owned at least three others over the years, beginning with the Picador paperback from ’96 with Vernon Hardapple’s Galaxie 500 on the cover. The copies I owned were either lost or lent (so: lost), and I’ve come to believe maybe I shouldn’t own a copy of this book. I’ve yet to lose the library’s edition.

Wonder Boys is my favorite book. There are surely better, more sophisticated books, but this is the one that chose me. This book is my big brother. I love it, admire it. I want to impress it. Sometimes I resent its presence in the world. It is a book that still gives me much of its original pleasure, yet against which I always feel I fall short. No matter: I will get up and try again. And if this continues to get me past a series of invisible finish lines during my time in this world, then I have yet another thing to love about it.