Currently Dreaming

At the moment, I’m not reading anything for pleasure, and what I’m reading for school would be cruel to recommend. However, periodically I do dream about reading books, so here’s a short list of books I’ve read in my dreams. One from pre-k, one from middle school, and one from just last week.

Dr. Seuss’ Pop-Up Anthology

– It was a standard pop-up book up until I got to the Green Eggs and Ham part when suddenly an actual plate of steaming, scrambled eggs popped up out of the pages. The smell was so putrid, my gut churning, that I quickly pulled the tag down and hurried onto the next page. I pulled another tag from the The Butter Battle Book section of the anthology and discovered either a Yook or a Zook dangling a small atomic bomb over the edge of the book. Just as the bomb was dropped, I woke up.

A Secret Guide to Peace

– My eyes opened to a thick, black leather-bound volume with an escription whose letters alternated between gleaming silver and bronze depending on how the light hit them. They spelled out A Secret Guide to Peace and when I tried opening the book, the pages kept sticking together. I thumbed them hurriedly, increasingly frantic as I sensed the dream fading and consciousness tugging me to the surface. Just as I glimpsed ink on the pages, a wind caused them to flip wildly, the crispy edges threatening paper cuts. I woke up.

Tom Riddle’s Diary

– When my dad moved out, he took some furniture with him, which included this beautiful book shelf that took up the entire livingroom wall. I had kept my entire Harry Potter collection in it which included a copy of The Half Blood Prince from England that had been signed by Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint. Somehow, during the move, the entire collection was lost. Perhaps it’s somewhere gathering dust in the basement where I’m writing right now, but I’ve combed through both my house and his apartment looking for it and it’s nowhere to be found.

It’s been years now, and I’ve pretty much moved on, however I got a call last week from my dad excitedly remembering that he must have put the books in Manhattan Mini Storage. I drove there and the warehouse was a mess, a mountain of books stacked high to the ceiling, with compartments tucked into the walls for even more books. I started climbing the hardcover steps, scaling to the top of the ceiling, and just about managed to brush my fingers against the worn binding of The Prisoner of Azkaban when my support gave way beneath my weight and toppled over. The wall we were just about to crash into provided no impact, and instead I seeped into a secret library on a wave of books washing onto a gigantic staircase. There was a table stacked with the library’s official must-reads and while I brushed myself off I saw one of them was entitled Tom Riddle’s Diary. I grabbed the book and looked around to see where I could check it out when I remembered I unfortunately hadn’t thought to bring my library card. Also, I was naked. I woke up.

~Amanda Jerido-Katz