I have always been a voracious reader. It’s rare that you will find me without a book in my hands. Right now, I’m working my way through the Dark Tower Series, again. (I was gifted the Gunslinger when I was in my early twenties and I still have that book… it’s falling apart but it remains untouched by future revisions by the author.) I remember and a kid, staying up late, hiding my clandestine after-bedtime adventures by sneaking a flashlight into my room, lifting my blankets up like a tent and sitting under them, furtively rushing through whatever fantastic book I was ingesting in great mental gulps, cramming in “one more chapter” before the inevitable sleep overtook me. I know now, that my parents were FULLY AWARE of these events and indulged me because I was reading… and also, I was quiet. One of the best days of my young adult life was the day we went to a garage sale and those folks had an outbuilding FULL of books for sale.  10 cents each! The outbuilding looked huge to me but I was a tiny kid so it was probably just a small barn… but I recall racks and racks of books. It was there that I stocked up on Agatha Christie. As an aside, one of life’s great disappointments is knowing who did it before you finish the book. Don’t peek ahead. I ruined “Peril at End House” because I **had** to know… and I never read the middle of the book.. I spoiled it. Don’t do that. Enjoy the experience. It’s much more gratifying. Anyway, a book that made a huge impression on me in my younger days, was Jackaroo by Cynthia Voigt which is now, evidently, retitled “Tale of Gywn” but when I read it, only one book in the series existed (and I’m not too proud to say that at the age of almost 45, I’m not above reading that whole series now that I know it exists. I don’t care that it’s Young Adult Fiction) Jackaroo was the legendary hero of a small feudal village and when things got tough and people needed saving, Jackaroo arrived. This story was so impactful because (spoiler) Jackaroo was a young woman who shucked off all of society's expectations and just did whatever she felt was right. I totally loved Gwyn.. and the book remains floating around in my brain so many years later. (I’m about to take a quick left turn on you… hold on, there is no gentle segue here..) Now that I have my new uke (ain’t she sweet?) I have been wanting to delve more into fingerstyle and solo stuff and really build some skills. I was digging around on Amazon and settled on Fingerstyle Ukulele - A Method & Songbook For Fingerpicking Backup & Solos, Ukulele Aerobics: For All Levels, from Beginner to Advanced, and Jazz Ukulele: Comping, Soloing, Chord Melodies. I almost got The Beatles for Fingerstyle Ukulele but decided against it because I have Stu Fuch’s Chord Solo Book and there are already a few of my favorite Beatles Songs in it. But the free sample has “Across the Universe” as the first few pages, so I looked at it pretty closely before deciding against buying the book. Now, before we get into this next bit of my post, let’s all agree that John Lennon did not always write lyrics that were easily understandable. For example:

Sitting on a cornflake Waiting for the van to come Corporation tee shirt Stupid bloody Tuesday Man, you been a naughty boy You let your face grow long I am the eggman They are the eggmen I am the walrus Goo goo g' joob

I also present, for your review:

He wear no shoeshine, he's got toe-jam football He got monkey finger, he shoot Coca-Cola He say, "I know you, you know me" One thing I can tell you is you got to be free

So imagine (no pun intended), given that Jackaroo made such a huge impression on me when I was a kid, that I was pretty surprised when I saw that what I thought was : Jackaroo, days.. .yeah.. Oh… Is actually Jai Guru Deva... Om Yet, my brain insists that I must continue to sing "Jackaroo Days, Yeah.. oh.." Nothing's going to change my world... (or my brain, evidently) Nothing's going to change my world...