Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination Book

Damn. I never had so much fun without moving an inch. Bloody brilliant.

Helen Fielding is finally back with a brand new heroine - Olivia Joules. Olivia is instantly likeable: down-to-earth, smart, self-made, and armed and ready to go with her own set of insecurities.

As the title suggests, Olivia's seeming downfall is her overactive imagination. She is berated by her boss and friends equally for it, especially because, as a journalist, she's been known to botch up more than a few stories along the way.

So this time, when a story about a possible major terrorist bent on the Western world's destruction waltzes in and invites her to his exclusive dinner party, she has to force herself not to get carried away.

Olivia's adventures in the name of journalism take her all over the world, armed with nothing but her wits, her quick thinking, her Survival Tin, and her Rules for Living.

The book starts dragging at some point, but when it finally gets out of that rut, it takes off again. I think that in this type of book - all about adventure and mystery - things have to happen fast, almost one of top of another, or it begins to drag. It becomes a bit unbelievable at certain points, but you can't fault it because it just goes with the storyline - and you need to have big imagination to keep up.

You might even learn a thing or two:

Rules for Living by Olivia Joules

1. Never panic. Stop, breathe, think.
2. No one is thinking about you. They're thinking about themselves, just like you.
3. Never change haircut or color before an important event.
4. Nothing is either as good or as bad as it seems.
5. Do as you would be done by, e.g. thou shalt not kill.
6. It is better to buy one expensive thing that you really like than several cheap ones that you only quite like.
7. Hardly anything matters: if you get upset, ask yourself, "Does it really matter?"
8. The key to success lies in how you pick yourself up from failure.
9. Be honest and kind.
10. Only buy clothes that make you feel like doing a small dance.
11. Trust your instincts, but not your overactive imagination.
12. When overwhelmed by disaster, check if it's really a disaster by doing the following: (a) think, "Oh, fuck it," (b) look on the bright side and, if that doesn't work, look on the funny side.
If neither of the above works then maybe it is a disaster so turn to items 1 and 4.
13. Don't expect the world to be safe, or life to be fair.
14. Sometimes you just have to go with the flow.

Added during her adventures:

15. Don't regret anything. Remember there wasn't anything else that could have happened, given who you were and the state of the world at that moment. The only thing you can change is the present, so learn from the past.
16. If you start regretting something and thinking, "I should have done..." always add, "but then I might have been run over by a lorry or blown up by a Japanese-manned torpedo."


Advice for Life:
"I don't feel good," she said.
"Bloody good thing too," he said. "Never feel good. The corruption of the good by the belief in their own infallible goodness is the most bloody dangerous pitfall in the human spectrum. Once you have conquered all your sins, pride is the one which will conquer you. A man starts off deciding he is a good man because he makes good decisions. Next thing, he's convinved that whatever decision he makes must be good beacuse he's a good man. Most of the wars in the world are caused by people who think they have God on their side. Always stick with people who know they are flawed and ridiculous."

Highly recommended for a fun time.