Gmorning, Gnight, Gbye

I was at the library the other day returning some books and checking out some others. I ventured over to the "new books" shelf as I often do to see if anything there caught my attention.

Right next to the poetry books were two copies of Lin-Manuel Miranda's Gmorning, Gnight. That immediately piqued my interest. Two copies? That suggested to me that either someone in the library is pushing this book, or that someone in the library thought this particular book might be popular.

I checked the credits at the back, and discovered the author wrote Hamilton - a musical in which I have no interest because I'm not a fan of modern musicals, and because of the politics surrounding it. But the musical did win awards, so he's now a name, hence he could publish a book of Twitter posts - which is what this little tome contains. Still, being popular and award-winning is not necessarily a knock on one's abilities as a writer- after all, Dickens was popular. But it did cause me to hesitate.

At our particular library, they put a sheet in the back of books where patrons can share their thoughts about the book. There was just one comment at the back of one of the copies. Some woman had written that she found the book profound and inspiring, and had bought copies for her daughters.

A second cause to hesitate. I wonder how the daughters reacted when they received their little gifts - or if they even read them?

I went ahead and took it out, in part just to see what he posted on Twitter that had apparently gotten him some attention. I thought that perhaps I could find some inspiration for my own tweets once I start tweeting again after Easter. I'm always looking for ways to improve.

Mr. Miranda's tweets reprinted in the book are indeed positive in nature - bite-size affirming, encouraging, and uplifting musings on life.

There's nothing wrong with that. We need more positive things these days.

Some of the tweets were nice. A couple made me smile. A few rang true.

Yes, some had unnecessary colorful language, but he's a child of his age, I guess. And many were, well, the kinds of things I might say to my middle school students to make them feel good about themselves.

I was reminded of a book I encountered years ago - thousands of things to be happy about, or some such title. I spotted it in a rack near the coffee bar in a local chain bookstore. The rack featured little pop wisdom or trivial books, sort of like the magazines and little books near the candy in the check-out lines and my local supermarket. Mental candy, easily consumed. I read through that "happy" book while waiting in line to order my overpriced coffee.

Being perhaps a bit more cynical and openly sarcastic in those days, I went home and started writing my own pseudo-epic - thousands of things to be annoyed about. I got up to 100, then got bored. I guess that's a tribute to the happy author that she was able to stick with it.

I think they've come out with at least a second edition of that happy book. That tells you something about the reading public - or at least consumers.

That's not to say Miranda's book is lame or trite (though some of this posts were one or both). It got to be pretty repetitive, however. But how many ways can you say "I'm okay, you're okay, it's all gonna be okay"? Admittedly, I did find myself rushing through the last few pages to get it done.

I wondered if the commenting woman's daughters' copies would end up in a library used book sale in the near future. Next to copies of the happy book, first and second editions.

Still, it did inspire me to try to write my own positive tweets once I start tweeting again - that's something to say for the book.

I won't pen anything like Hamilton to give me name recognition, and make my Twitter musings marketable.

But that doesn't matter. We do need more positive things these days, after all.

Pax et bonum