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Monday, August 6, 2012

Ashlee and the St. Lunatics

I kind of can't believe I haven't shared this with you guys yet. Maybe it's because I'm afraid you'll be so jealous you'll break into my house and steal it. I mean, it IS one of the coolest things I've ever owned. And by far one of my biggest treasures.


Last summer I happened upon this book at the book store in Ludington. For obvious reasons, I had to pick it up and leaf through it. A book about Ashlee Simpson? ? What exactly is there to tell? (Sorry, Ashlee.) Even more mysterious, it appears to have been owned by a Baltimore library once (see spine), which doesn't make any sense because this bookstore doesn't sell used  books. It also doesn't make sense because why would a library own this book...? Then get rid of it? (Actually that last question makes sense.)

It was almost as if fate handed me this book.

I flipped it over and read the back cover:

Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!!!

Intrigue! Maybe there's more to this Ashlee Simpson than I realized! And it certainly doesn't paint Mr. and Mrs. Simpson in a good light. I just had to know more. So I opened it up and glanced at the table of contents. That's where I realized something was wrong. That is, even more wrong than I originally suspected when I picked up a book about Ashlee Simpson.



Wait, what?? "Rough Streets"? "Country Grammar"?? So I turned the next page, which is where I saw this:


Cornell Haynes? That's not Ashlee Simpson's name. "When he was 15"!?!?! Ashlee isn't a "he!" Or is she/he?

Nope. GUYS. The book isn't about Ashlee Simpson. It's about Nelly! Things just got SO much better!!!!!! Here's a little sneak peak of the rest of the book:



I almost want to slow clap for the publisher for inadvertently creating such a masterpiece.  At what point did they go, "oh crap - we mixed up the covers? Oh well, let's ship them to libraries and book stores anyway!"?

I paid about a dollar for it, and suffice it to say it's one of the best dollars I've ever spent. I asked the cashier about it and he said he had no idea how it ended up in their inventory. He'd never even seen it before.

It's such a treasure I almost feel I have to throw it off a bridge and allow fate to bring it to the next person who needs this in their life.

4 comments:

mjwells said...

This is the most amazing things ever!!! I am super jealous!

Katherine said...

HA! I like the idea of throwing it off a bridge, Jumanji-style, and seeing what happens next...!!! HA!!

Stella said...

"....much of a future..." Hilarious!

Liz Hughes said...

When I read that back cover my heart wept, I wanted to take Ashlee in my arms and tell her everything was going to be ok. And aren't they ok, did she end up having a baby and name it after a Jungle Book character. Silver linings.
But I also have a hole in my heart that only knowing more about Nelly's story can fill.
The clerk didn't know how they got that book into their inventory? Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Magic! It's almost like a plot to a movie... Almost.