The book: You Shall Know Our Velocity-Dave Eggers
The song: Bright Eyes-Another Travelin' Song

I hate to post Bright Eyes. I really do. I would even go as far as to say I despise the fact that I'm posting Bright Eyes. I don't like Oberst much, and I probably never will. But it's either this, or no song, and since my posting will probably slide downhill in the next two weeks due to this AP testing shite, I feel the need to make things slightly better. And really--this song is too fitting for this amazing novel. Minus the quality level. I mean, the constant shifting, flickering attention, the lack of a destination, yet the readiness for action. The want, the need to find a place. Pretending, not to see the things before you and blowing it all off. Goaless destination and life at its most spontaneous. That's this song, that's this book.

This book, it's all shades of wonderful. The senselessness of spenting this $80,000 that the main character earned, and regretting the death of their friend. Forever wondering, wandering through the landscapes of the oddest countries. Mingling with prostitutes and Mafia like taxi-drivers, taping money to donkeys and leaping off trees...that sense of abandonment must be amazing. One of them comes up with an idea--any idea, and it happens. Yes, airlines might not have the right schedule. Time changes might conflict with their plans, but when it comes down to it, it's the adventure itself. Mental dialogues and the writing. Eggers is a brilliant writer. Sometimes, I think I've mentioned before, you get this sort of feeling reading great works, and you marvel at the words themselves as works of art...and this is one of those. The conversations are so realistic, the characters so believable that this book holds a place in my favorites list already.