I have bad luck. Now, I don’t mean the kind Thomas Jefferson was talking about when he said, “I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.”* I keep my eyes open for new opportunities and work hard so I’m prepared when they cross my path.
No, I mean more along the lines of Dirty Harry asking, “Do ya’ feel lucky punk?” My answer would be “No, Dirty Harry, I don’t feel lucky. So, let’s just peacefully part ways and pretend nothing happened” because, just my luck, he would have only fired five shots.
You see, I never win anything—if there’s a raffle, my name won’t be drawn, and I will never be the 10th caller when Taylor Swift concert tickets are on the line. Dice rolls and coin tosses never land in my favor, and I smartly avoid gambling because my odds of winning are even slimmer than the average person’s.
But maybe that’s changing. At least, that’s what I hope my Goodreads Giveaway winning streak means. Within a two-month period, I won two books, and I must say, I like the way this whole luck thing feels.
First, I won this pretty copy of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens:
Great Expectations is one of my favorite classics, and this cover is beautiful—and if you know me, you know I like pretty things.
The second one is this movie tie-in edition of Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie:
Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None was required reading in junior high. And I really liked it, although it was a little intense for my younger, more sensitive self. I have avoided her other novels because, well, even now I am scared. However, when I saw the first movie trailer for Murder on the Orient Express, I knew I had to see it. And because of a little rule I made for myself, before I can see a movie adaptation, I have to read the book. It may take me a while to finish, though—like Dracula, I may only be able to read it during daylight hours.
All in all, you guys can keep your raffle-won blenders and lucky caller–won concert tickets. If my luck is completely isolated to winning books, well, that’s perfectly fine with me.
*This quote hasn’t been definitively attributed to Thomas Jefferson.