Wednesday, June 27, 2012

"As Long As You're Mine"

I recently acquired another book for my collection. I know! Here I am complaining about having so many books and hoping to get rid of some of them, so what do I do? Get another book! :) But this book is special! Then again aren't they all. Okay this one is special in a different way. It's a signed copy! Yes, signed as in by the author. And you want to know what I have a signed copy of?


WICKED! BWHAHAHAHAHA! Yes, I have a Gregory Maguire signed copy of Wicked! :) See here's proof!


Yeah that's his signature. I can see Maguire better than the Gregory but it's his name he can sign it however he wants to. Now how did I get an autographed book you might ask? Well, my Children's Literature professor was presenting at a conference and she asked me to read to give my opinion on it, any suggestions, etc. I was more than happy to do it! I love English and I was missing my English classes anyway. It was a great read and she liked my suggestions. Gregory Maguire was at the same conference and she got me this as a thank you present. It's even personalized! It says "To Heather" at the top. IT'S SO AWESOME! I've already decided that it's going next to my copies of The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone that I got from Blackwell Bookstore during my trip to Oxford, England last year. Books are the perfect gift to me. You can't really go wrong. Okay, you can go wrong but if you know what I like, you can't go wrong. :)

If you haven't guessed yet, I love Wicked. I was first introduced to it at the end of 9th grade to the soundtrack of the Broadway. I picked up the book soon after that. I enjoy Gregory Maguire a lot. He has an interesting take on The Wizard of Oz. I'll be honest I find it more entertaining than Baum's original version. While I own three of his Oz series, I've only read the first two books. I've yet to read A Lion Among Men.


I enjoyed them but my favorite Maguire book is Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister.


It takes place in Holland and it's a Cinderella story from the Ugly Stepsister's point of view. It reminded me a lot of the movie Girl with a Pearl Earring. The stepsister is interested in painting and you have a lot of reverences to popular Dutch painters. Definitely my favorite Gregory Maguire book, at least of the ones I've read.

It goes without saying that I love the Broadway musical. It's fantastic! I've had the opportunity to see it twice now and it never gets old. The soundtrack is definitely a part of my favorite high school summer. It was the summer after 10th grade. My friend and I would go to the dollar theater in town almost every week and on the drive over we'd belt out the soundtrack of Wicked the whole way. I think that was the same year I sent my friend a birthday email that included all the song titles from the Wicked soundtrack. It was pretty awesome!


Next time the musical Wicked is showing near you, definitely go see it! It's wonderful! Despite blaring differences between the book and musical, you should give the book a read until the musical makes it to you! :)

Happy readings!

PS All but the pictures of my signed Wicked came from Google Images.

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