Well, the weekend has just been DOMINATED by that book. I took it in to work on Friday and people kept wandering casually up to my desk and leafing through it, and then wondering, in an off-hand way, if they could borrow it. (I said No, as I knew I’d never see it again.) Then all weekend people kept dropping in to read it. The two Japanese girls got engrossed in it on Sunday, after appearing (with Mirabelle, who had escaped again, this time to their flat, because they have a sun-roof thingy and she loves basking in it.)
It’s engrossing not just because - as Topiary said, it is based on honest research, rather than just the stupid opinion of some self-appointed guru – but because everyone who reads it seems to have a story that backs it up. I was discussing it in the deli, esp the bit that says if you want to get married you HAVE to have a particular serious conversation telling your man that you do, and the woman behind the counter, Pixie, said that that was exactly how she got married. She had a long-live in relationship that went bad, having had two kids by the guy. And then she met her present husband, and really liked him. And one day, when they were in bed – yet another proposal-situation that happened when both people were naked – she summoned up all her courage and said to him that she really really loved him etc but she’d already tried living with someone and that hadn’t worked out, so this time it was marriage or nothing, and if he didn’t want to commit she’d have to end things. And then she felt so ashamed and self-conscious she pulled the duvet over her head and hid. And after about five minutes she poked her head back out and he was sitting up, smiling, and he said ‘I’m still here!’ and that was that.
We were smiling and laughing about this, and I was trying to choose between two low-fat cheesecakes (lemon or mango) when her husb appeared. And guess what! He was fat and bald! But in a very nice, attractive way.
This morning, two men have come casually up to my desk to leaf through THE BOOK. So word is getting round.
