Consider the following: books we’ve discussed at ONBC, future books for discussion at ONBC or potential books we might be discussing at ONBC (bios on Johnny don’t count). Imagine you could step through the cover and into the pages of one of these books and become either one of its characters, its narrator, its author or just a bystander. What part in which book would you step into and why?

Wow. You've given us practically the world of literature to choose from. Hmmm. Some things that come to mind (okay, I can't pick just one) are:

1. I'd like to be a bystander on any of HST's adventures.

2. I'd like to be able to write a timeless classic like Peter Pan.

3. I'd love to be able to churn out novels like Stephen King, none truly great, but all of them entertaining and eagerly awaited by my audience.

4. I'd like to be friend/lover to JM Barrie, the one who would have eased his pain (and who would no doubt have destroyed his creative angst in the process ).

5. (Some days) I'd like to be Candy (Terry Southern) or Chenault (Rum Diary) - the physical object of men's desires.

6. (Some days) I'd like to Jack/Sal or Neal/Dean (or even Peter Pan), self-absorbed and looking for the next high.

7. (Some days) I'd love to be a kid (Charlie) in Willie's chocolate factory.

I could go on but you get the picture. Alas, "I yam who I yam" as the great philosopher Popeye says.

Oh, the questions are getting easier, are they????????

I guess Chenault from The Rum Diary would be my choice so far. She was so sure of herself and so in love with life and so willing to experience every delicious forbidden moment of it. Love her freedom and her ability to rebound................

Upcoming, Sylvia Davies? She seemed to be so filled with love and self-assurance. She loved her husband with a passion, her children with all her being, but was still able to fill her life with other people and experiences and savor the best of all her worlds.

I cant really cant pick a character I would want to be in any of the books we have read. Maybe Sylvia in the lost boys but I havent read the whole story yet so I dont know what all happens to her. I do know I would have loved to be in the Rum Diary but not as Chanult. she had some bad things happen to her & she seemed to not have respect for herself by the way she let men treat her. But to party a little with Hunter would be fun. lolol To listen to that crazy coot talk. I would be the mouse in the corner.

This has been a tough one! I think I finally have it down to two choices.

First, I would have to be a bystander in The Rum Diary. I would love to be a fly on the wall around Hunter and be able to observe him from a safe distance.

My second choice would be the bartender in The Time of Your Life. Just standing around the bar, polishing the top, watching Joe and Tom and the rest come and go, listening to their conversations...

I've gone back and forth on this all night, and I've finally decided that most of all I would like to step into the role of Hunter S. Thompson, but not in The Rum Diary. I would like to step into his role as author of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I know we didn't actually read that book, but it falls into the category of a conceivable read for the future. I would just love to get into his mind to find out what he's really thinking.

I'd like to be the female character in a book that hasn't been written, likely to be titled "A Charmed Life - The Greatest Love Story Ever Told; Johnny Depp & Vanessa Paradis" - and that female character would of course be Vanessa. I can dream, can't I?