Did I just... Yes, I did just say that

Three books I'm excited the kids section got in:

1. It's An Orange Aardvark by Michael Hall
I giggled the entire time I read this book. It delights me with how absurd it is.

2. Beauty and the Beast by Ursula Jones
The illustrations in this book are a wonderful mix of paper cut silhouettes and beautifully simple art illustrations.

3. Lulu's Mysterious Mission by Judith Viorst
I love Lulu and her adventures with both the brontosaurus and the dogs. Just flipping through this one I was laughing.

"You're a troublesome wee beastie!"

That is a phrase that I snapped at my roommate's cat the other day. Almost instantly I stopped, startled that the phrase had come out of my mouth. That's not exactly common Amy-lingo. Not as far off as a lot of things but not an everyday occurrence. I was even more startled to find that I'd been thinking in language like that for longer than I'd realized.

The thing is, I know exactly where I got it. The book series I'm currently reading as a number of Scottish main characters. Phrases like that are not sparse. And as embroiled as I've been in the books they've just sort of taken up residence in my head.

And, as surprised as I was, it's not the first time something like this has happened.
A Couple of years ago I listened to the Beautiful Creatures audio book on my way to and from work. A couple of days in I was thinking in a Southern accent like the narrator. I'm really not good with accents when speaking but apparently I don't have this problem in my head. Mental Amy was from Gatlin, South Carolina for a few weeks.

I apparently went through a distinctly snarky phase after reading Michelle Hodkin's The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer. I'm pretty sarcastic in general but Mara has me beat by a mile. I got more than one eyebrow raise from my equally-as-sarcastic mom. But Mara's voice lingered in my head so my instinctual response to everything was my own sarcasm only dialed up to 12.

There is one line in Tamora Pierce's Protector of the Small series where Neal greets everyone by saying "hello, ducks." I have been saying that since I read that series in middle school. I never made the conscious decision to do so and I don't even notice when I do it anymore.

It's never a decision to adopt the language of characters that I'm reading (or hearing) but it happens. I haven't yet figured out what it is about certain books that sticks in my head like that. Some of it, I'm sure, is just prolonged exposure but that doesn't account for all of it. Maybe one day I'll figure it out but right now, I'll just keep adopting a strange assortment of slang and accents.

-Amy