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My Gen X Playlist: Boy – Book of Love

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Bloganuary writing prompt
What books do you want to read?
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My good friend has been working on his book for decades. He is an attorney and therefore, a researcher by trade. This leaks over to his writing and he is constantly researching for his book. Well, to call it a book is an understatement. He has been creating an entire world, something like you’d find in Game of Thrones or JRR Tolkien’s books. He has created a history of this world, with different peoples, cultures and unique languages. When he travels abroad, he makes sure he visits castles, cathedrals and temples. He takes bits and pieces from history all over the world and stores them away in his brain to contemplate later as he weaves his storyline. It’s a continuous evolution. It’s kind of hard core, if you ask me.

I usually ask about his writing when we are on a long hike. ”Still working on it,” is his reply. What I learned on one of these hikes is that the enormity of creating this world can be overwhelming. So overwhelming, that he stops. Over analyze, paralyze. I put my project management hat on and gave some unsolicited advice. Think of milestones. Map out milestones and just trudge along one step at a time. What about releasing the first chapter? Who says the entire project needed to be complete before you release it to the world? Bold words and advice from a person with an anonymous blog. But I still stand by the milestone advice. Sometimes you just need to trudge along with your eye on the hill just ahead of you. The finish line is too far in the distance, over the horizon. It’s nice to celebrate the smaller victories along the way and build some momentum.

So to answer the question, I’d like to read my buddy’s book. Or at least the first chapter. Not because I’ve been waiting for years to read it. I haven’t. I’d just like to read it because that means he is one step closer to his dream.

Book of Love just feels like an 80’s band. They released their debut single Boy in 1985. Although the synthesizers and the beat makes me think about dancing at a club, there’s more to the song.

“There was a new gay bar called Boy Bar,” he says. “It was really a hot place to go… [but] in the post-punk clubs that we went to, it didn’t really matter what your sexuality was, what your background was. Now, all of the sudden, there were these new places that were coming up that were identifying their clubgoers by their sexual politics… In our world, that was a big deal. We basically lived the life of art students and at night, we would go out to our favorite clubs. Now, all of the sudden, if you were a girl, you couldn’t go to this place.”

– redbullmusicacademy

I think if I were creating a new world, we wouldn’t have to worry about exclusion. Life is difficult enough to pile this on as well. People are people. Just play the music and let everyone dance.

–

For a complete playlist, please click here.

For the Spotify playlist, please click here.

I want to be where the boys are
But I'm not allowed
I wait outside of the boy's bar
I wait for them to all come out

I'm not a
Boy

It's not my fault
That I'm not a boy
It's not my fault
I don't have those toys

I'm not a
Boy

And now it's alright
Without those boys
I stay at home at night
And I play with my toys

I'm not a
Boy

19 thoughts on “My Gen X Playlist: Boy – Book of Love”

  2. I admire your friend’s ambition. Creating a whole world is quite an undertaking. Coincidentally, my choir is singing a song from Lord of the Rings in “Elvish” tomorrow and people have been debating the grammar rules. It’s pretty funny.

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  4. I hope your friend doesn’t give up on his writing dream. I remember I wanted to write a book and it ended up being a collection of essays.I sent it to my alma mater’s library. And I hope students are reading it.

    If your dream is to write a book, then you should start now. I’m working on a small writing project, and believe me, it is so much fun! ☺️

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  6. I hope your friend stops all the research and simply writes and publishes his book. My last conversation with my best friend a week before she passed (from ovarian cancer) was that she couldn’t wait to finally hold my book in her hands. She remembered the little details I told her so many years earlier (from all my research so your friend’s process is all too familiar to me) but I never had the heart to tell her I’d given up the dream of writing the book. It would take another four years before I’d publish my first book and I wrote that for her. If she couldn’t hold it in her hands and read it, I made sure her spirit was in those pages.

    Love your pick of song. I’ve been playing your playlist a lot. In fact, it’s playing right now!

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    1. Thanks for that. If you don’t mind, I’ll pass along your story. It sounds like something he should hear.

      I was thinking about music about books and that band name came to mind. I couldn’t remember any if their songs offhand and looked up a bunch of their music on YouTube. I always thought the lead singer was male. The song makes sense now that I read the backstory. Man, this song was a blast from the past. This was a fun song I completely forgot about.

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      1. Please pass along the story. For me, the biggest fear was hitting publish and “what will people think when they read my book?” but my need to express myself overtook everything else. I got to meet so many readers and a few have told me how my books have pulled them out of dark times and that means a lot to me.

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  8. Pingback: My Gen X Playlist: Modigliani (Lost in Your Eyes) – Book of Love – MyGenXerLife

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