{review :: It Chooses You by Miranda July}

"I began to feel that I was asking the question just to remind myself that I was in a place where computers didn't really matter, just to prompt my appreciation for this. As if I feared that the scope of what I could feel and imagine was being quietly limited but the world within a world, the internet. The things outside of the web were becoming further from me, and everything inside it seemed piercingly relevant. The blogs of strangers had to be read daily, and people nearby who had no web presence were becoming cartoon like, as if they were missing a dimension."

-Miranda July

It Chooses You by Miranda July is  an engaging book that I devoured in one afternoon. In my labs, I am always extolling the virtues of getting out and talking to strangers. July does this in a quirky project that keeps her busy while she is struggling to finish a film script. Each week, she scans the Penny Saver circular that arrives in the mail. She calls people who are selling stuff through this archaic publication and arranges to meet, interview, and photograph them and their stuff (they are told up front what she is doing and she offers compensation). Of course, she meets a motley mix of characters - some are really creepy and others bear tragically heart breaking wounds. Several of the characters end inform her film and one even ends up acting in it.

I loved this book and her open and curious sensibility. A great, great read of the weirdo mind (like me and you!).