IN WHICH The Girl Has Dolla Dolla Bling

Whenever the lottery reward reaches record heights, many people get swept up in the dream of suddenly rolling in the big money. I'm generally not a lottery player, but even I felt that need to put my two dollars in for a Powerball ticket. Unfortunately, I didn't get even one number right. At least give me the four dollar prize guys!

In the time leading up to the drawing, I did have a chance to play out multiple fantasies of wealth. Life with more than $10 in my bank account! Paying off those ungodly student loans! Food! A beautiful condo with a view! And books... books... books...

As a literary lover, I came up with several awesome things I could do with my millions. If you did happen to win the jackpot, here are some ideas:

Buy Things

Of course, now that I no longer need to worry about money, I can stop waiting on hold for the most popular books from the library. I can just buy them right away! What? That's crazy. I think I look at the library website every day to see if they have the new releases in yet. Yes, I know that I have a bazillion other books to read, but I want the pretty, new things. Plus, now that I won't need to work for a living, I will have all the time in the world to read all the books in the world.

But these are small potatoes. Why think about ten dollar books when you can think about ten thousand dollar books? Now is the time to start collecting rare books. For example, I could get a special first edition copy of Winnie-the-Pooh on Japanese vellum, signed by both the author and the illustrator for $51,941. 

Flickr/British Library

I'm a billionaire now - let's ignore the realities of taxes - so I can also try to get my hands on the most expensive books out there. Forbes list of the most expensive books ever sold lists the Codex Leicester of Leonardo da Vinci at $49.4 million and Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (1623), The First Folio by William Shakespeare at $8.2 million. Want to sell me that Codex, Mr. Gates?

Where shall I sit while reading Shakespeare's first folio? Why in Pemberley of course! For a mere $12.5 million - less than that Codex you might note - I can purchase Wentworth Woodhouse, which may have inspired Jane Austen's version of Pemberley in Pride and Prejudice and is currently for sale. I've already started auctioning off the 300 rooms to friends. I'm generous. 

Wentworth Woodhouse                Flickr/Allan Harris

For my additional homes across the world, there are several houses associated with famous authors that I could purchase. How about this lovely $35 million estate in California that once belonged to Thomas Mann and was in Scarface. Here's a list of additional literary housing options as well.

Visit Things

Real Gabinete Português de Leitura   Flickr/Mathieu Bertrand Struck

Now that I am comfortably settled in my Austen-style mansion filled with books, I can start traveling. There are hundreds of literary destinations. I could take a world library tour, for instance, including the Liyuan Library in Beijing, China, which apparently is built with timber to blend into the forest and sits on a lake, and the Real Gabinete Português de Leitura in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil that is just darn beautiful. 

Liyuan Library Outside         Flickr/LiXiaodong Atelier

Liyuan Library Inside         Flickr/LiXiaodong Atelier

Or I could travel around to the literary museums. Did you know that there is Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem where you can view the Dead Sea Scrolls? Bustle has put together a list of several more. From here I also learned that The American Writer's Museum will be opening up in Chicago next year! Yay!

Shrine of the Book                         Flickr/Christyn

After all this museum and library hopping, I will probably want to sit back and take in a good play. I could then attend some of the greatest theaters in the world. There's of course the Globe Theater in England, but also the National Noh Theatre in Tokyo that is made out of cypress trees, the Minack Theatre that sits on a cliff in Cornwall, and the Palais Garnier in Paris where The Phantom of the Opera was set.

Palais Garnier                                 Flickr/Jonathan

Learn Things

In between my jet-setting, I might actually want to take some literature classes. Don't scoff! Learning is fun (says the teacher). With my winnings, I can pay off all my student loans and get as many degrees as I want - from as many schools that will accept me at least. I'd still love to get my Ph.D. Even if I don't want to get a full degree, however, I can now afford to take a random class here or there. I could even take one while traveling. Did you know Harvard has an online extension school? I could take American Dreams from Scarface to Easy Rider or Masterpieces of World Literature for $2,400, though it's unclear whether that is for the whole course or per graduate credit. By the way, they also have a bunch of free courses of which anyone can take advantage.

That was a nice trip through fantasy land. Well, these might not happen at this point, but life goals! Since I do still need to make a living, I suppose I should get working on those syllabi then.

What would you do with a jackpot win?

IN WHICH The Girl Wants Benedict Cumberbatch to Read to Her

You know what makes reading easier? Listening instead. Granted, I don't really mind reading as an activity; in fact, I love it. However, I've recently started listening to audiobooks, and I actually quite enjoy the experience. If you've never listened to an audiobook, or it has been awhile, I recommend giving one a shot.

In certain circumstances, I find reading an actual book most inconvenient, say when driving a car. During the school year, I spend a lot of time transporting myself from one school to another. Last fall, I worked at four schools in four completely different cities throughout the Chicagoland area (oh the joys of adjuncting). I spent several hours a day driving and the radio gets real old after about a half hour. And even when I don't have to drive, I usually spend multiple hours on public transportation, hopping from bus to train to bus to walking etc. etc. During all of these activities, it is simply easier to listen to a book instead of read one. I even started listening to books on the beach because I can never seem to comfortably manage reading a book while lying on my stomach.

Technology, oh that wonderful and frustrating set of toys, makes it incredibly easy to use audiobooks today. While you can certainly still buy the big packs of CDs, those only really work if you have a permanent car - which I don't - because otherwise you have to keep finding your spot in the story over and over again. Plus, it's not like I still have a discman to carry around when I'm not in a car. But if you have a smart phone, you can just download an audiobook to your phone. It's fast, you don't have to go anywhere, and it will save your spot for you. In a car with bluetooth, you can then listen to it though the radio. Or you can just plug in your earphones during all sorts of activities. Science!

To make it even better, you can find tons of free audiobooks to download from the library. Audiobook CD sets are actually fairly expensive otherwise. There are also resources like Audible from Amazon for audiobooks, but they charge a fee as well. I think I give a spiel about the library to every person I know. To my understanding, people seem quite terrified of libraries after they graduate school. However, just like everything else, libraries have evolved with the times. You can now get thousands of ebooks and audiobooks from the library website without ever having to step foot in a physical library, should you not want to deal with those crazy book people.

There's even an app called OverDrive Media that will connect to your local library website and let you download your ebooks and audiobooks through it. From my experience, you can actually find more audiobooks instantly available from the library than ebooks because people don't check them out as often. Plus, even if some mean person got to the book you want first, you can put it on hold and have the website automatically check it out for you once it's available. On the opposite end, the book just disappears at the end of your lending time, usually 21 days, so you never have to worry about late fees. If you then check the book out again later, the program also saves your spot in the book. How much more convenient can it get? I strongly feel that people should both have access to and take advantage of free books. I once passed the public library in Boise, Idaho, which had an exclamation point after the name of the library, and I thought, "Yes, that's the kind of enthusiasm we need for our libraries!"

While this audiobook business is all fun and games, there are a few things to keep in mind. One, it can be hard to do two things at once, for me at least. Therefore, I tend to choose light books that I can follow even if I miss a line or two while I'm paying attention to traffic or listening to a train announcement. You don't want to have to keep rewinding to catch an important detail. In the last few months I have listened to The Great Gatsby (having read it several times before so not needing extreme powers of attention), one of the Matched young adult books, and several murder mysteries. I, nevertheless, declined to download the audiobook version of The Sound and the Fury for this reason. In addition, it can be odd to listen to a voice other than your own read the story. Sometimes the speaker's voice annoys me or doesn't fit with what I imagine in my own head, but most of the time he or she has a pleasing timbre. Why can't Benedict Cumberbatch read every book? Lastly, downloading the books can use an incredible amount of data, so always download them when you have wi-fi unless you have some amazing data plan.

Now I just need to decide which book to download for the flight I'm taking this weekend. Choices... choices...