A is for All the Money in the World

I'm taking two of my challenges and wrapping them into one post.  It's the A-Z Blogging Challenge and Emlyn Chand's Books that Made Me Love Reading Challenge.  For this month, I read All the Money in the World by Bill Brittain.

What I thought then:
This book captivated me.  Honestly, I couldn't stop thinking about it.  My little mind was enthralled.  It really taught me "be careful what you wish for."  And it made me think long and hard about what I would do with three wishes.  Firstly, I would tell the person who was granted the wishes not to grant it until I said, "Please grant the wish that I just told you about."  This way, I would avoid any stupidities (like in the book).

For my first wish, I would wish for:  A wallet that is indestructible and has magical properties (which I will explain momentarily) where only people related to me can use it - and if it is stolen, or lost, it will always find its way back to the people in my family.  Now, the magical properties would be:  Every time I, or a family member, thought about how much money they needed, it would appear in the wallet.  However, this money would come from places where people forgot about it.  Example:  twenty dollars falls down the drain and never gets picked up again?  It's mine now.  But all money pulled from the wallet will be cleaned, and in perfect condition (so if I end up pulling up old gold coins from somewhere deep in the ocean, I can totally have artifacts - and don't have to deal with stinky swamp money).  In the case that there is no money that people have lost/forgotten about, the wallet will remain empty until there is money/gold/silver that can be found elsewhere.  The money is not to be "stolen" from people that own it.

Yes, this is everything I thought of when I was little.  Because I loved the concept of "all the money in the world" or rather "not having to worry about it again," but saw the flaws in the wish and wanted to make it better.  My kid mind was all about it.  As for my second and third wish?  I would save them, because if the first wish fails in someway, I will definitely need my second wish to fix it.

What I think now:
It was still a fun read, and clearly I'm still thinking about what my three wishes would be.  Though Quentin's story is a lot less interesting the second time around - it was still very amusing.  My biggest problem with the book is no one ever questions why leprechauns exist.  I mean, there's a one-two foot man running around who is green and everyone just accepts it.  "Oh, that's just Flan."  ... That's just a little green man!!! No big deal?!  Really?!

The Concept of All:
A is for All, so I want to take the time to discuss this concept.  All is a pretty selfish term.  I don't think I would ever wish, or want, all of something.  It's too self-centered.  Can you think of anything that you would want all of?  All the oranges, tea, money, trees, land, paperclips?  What's the point in having all of anything if you can't share it?  Who would want all the paperclips in the world anyway?  The only thing that I could think of would be:  I want to see all the beautiful things in the world before I pass.  But that could take a long time, right?  Or maybe just, I want all my thoughts to be positive?  But then - if all your thoughts are positive, all the time, then how would you get negativity in your writing?  Your characters have to go through some kind of emotional turmoil to change?  And knowing everything - all the things in the world - that would be way too intense, right?  I think that I should keep the "alls" to someone else, because I'm "all" set ;)  But if you can think of anything that it would be helpful to have all of - please, start the debate!