Little, Big is simply one of the best novels I’ve ever read, and even that doesn’t do it justice. It is, as one reviewer put it, “mysteriously affecting.” Read a few of the Amazon reviews here to get a glimpse of what I mean. On top of that, I feel like it put me in an altered state of consciousness that often lasted for 6–12 hours, best described as a deep feeling of serenity. And yet, I’ve hesitated for weeks to put it into “5-Bullet Friday”! Why? Because I think it’ll only grab 10–20% of you. In fact, my brother gave me the paperback version in 2018, and I tried reading it three or four times over the past two years. I put it down after fewer than 50 pages in each attempt. So how’d I end up finishing it this time? This go-round, I committed to reading at least 100 pages, reading daily, and reading the Kindle version. Why? It’s partly because the prose is stunningly beautiful, but it’s unusual and requires close attention. It’s partly because there are a lot of characters introduced in the first 100 pages, and you need to keep them straight, which is why I also posted a pic of a family tree (the last of the three photos in the post) to help everyone out. Last, author John Crowley uses exquisite and poetic vocabulary, but I needed the Kindle built-in dictionary quite a lot (borborygmus, anyone?). It all sounds like a lot of work, and—guess what?—it is a lot of work. But hot damn, the payoff is just so, so delicious that it’s hard to describe. If you try it, don’t say I didn’t warn you. 8 out of 10 of you will think I’ve lost my mind. But 2 out of 10 will find this tale of hyperreality, unreality, concrete jungles, fairy tales, and dreams to be nearly magical in its effects. This book is special.