Time for a life-imitates-art story.
Ten years ago, my 8th grade American History teacher Glynn Owens—despite being possibly one of my most respected and influential teachers of all time, he tragically died of spinal meningitis soon after I left middle school—recommended I read Tom Robbins’ Half Asleep In Frog Pajamas, which is a book written in second person about a collapse in the stock market. I don’t normally remember people’s book recommendations, but his stuck with me. So, three years ago I put it on my to-read list.
I started reading it last week. Since 1998, the American economy has been in a range of states between ‘meh’ and ‘outstanding.’ But the second I open Half Asleep, the Dow tanks 700 points, almost as if it had been waiting for this moment for ten years.
Maybe I should hold off reading World War Z.