What a great question

I managed to get to the Cleveland Public Library for the book sale last week (perk of working downtown, along with Teahouse Noodle lunches, seeing long-lost acquaintances on the street and last minute al fresco happy hours at the bar downstairs).

Anyway, I picked up Amy Tan's "Bonesetter's Daughter" for a $1 - I enjoyed some of her previous work, but having experienced not so good luck with fiction lately, I was suspect.

I proceeded to gobble it up in 3 days time (amazing, considering it was a truly-evenings-and-weekends-heavy kind of work week). I highly recommend it.

But what inspired me to post about this book, was an answer to a question on page 341.

"...If I want anything, it's to know what's possible to want."

I don't come from a guilt inducing background, but I must admit to being a bit of a needless wonder.
As though wanting something translates to having unreasonable expectations -
so it's mostly easier to train yourself to expect nothing, right?

Logically, this would result in nothing but exceeded expectations, but in reality, I think it leads to a whole lot of nothing.

I'm not endorsing magial thinking, but I think maybe it's ok to want things.