The following can also be found in the book Chicago Stories 1998. Click here to learn more, and to download a free electronic copy.

In The Book of Eleven, Amy Krause Rosenthal offers an open invitation for readers to send in their own thoughts, at which point Ms. Rosenthal will send back a penny.

1. My favorite television show of all time is Teletubbies. There is something so surreal about a show specifically targeted to a demographic that doesn't yet understand language, doesn't understand plot or characterization, a marketing niche who simply enjoys seeing pictures of other babies laughing and screaming and throwing things. It is much more creepy and disturbing and entertaining than anything David Lynch has ever done. I explain this to my friends and they don't understand what I'm talking about, and I'll simply say, "Just go watch an episode." And then I'll run into them a week later and they'll say, "You know, I watched Teletubbies last week, and you're completely right!" and I will feel completely vindicated.

2. I have met Liz Phair four times now, and still haven't had one decent thing to say to her.

3. Sometimes when I'm wearing my Walkman and strolling down the sidewalk, I'll suddenly be struck by the thought that my life is one enormous movie and I am actually listening to its soundtrack right now. Then I'll think, "Why did the director pick this song? I mean, don't get me wrong, it's a great song, but I'm the only person I know who likes it. And that's no way to sell a movie."

4. Of all the things to be jealous of over Amy's book (and there's a lot), the thing that makes me most jealous is the fact that she has spot-gloss on the cover. That's when a book cover will mostly be matte except for one tiny part that's all glossy and reflects the light from the room or the sun. I know from experience that this is an incredibly expensive thing to have, and publishers won't approve it unless they really, really believe in the book being published.

5. Whenever I fly on Southwest Airlines, I always sit in one of those backward seats right by the front hatch, so that I won't have to sit around for twenty minutes after the flight waiting for all those terribly slow people tortuously pulling their baggage out of the overhead compartments. The flipside of this is that I end up having to sit with all the screaming babies and freaked-out parents and the others on the flight who need "special assistance."

6. I wonder if Amy really is going to give me a penny for these thoughts, or if that was just some little gimmicky thing she simply said since it was in a chapter about pennies.

7. I'm completely obsessed with the WB television network right now. They have three shows on this season called "Hyperion Bay," "Felicity" and "Dawson's Creek," which are about, respectively, a computer nerd who's now famous, a college freshman who's constantly confused, and high school students who can't get laid. I know that the main reason I'm obsessed with these shows is because they fairly accurately mirror my entire real life, and in fact my friends have joked that they should rename the network "The JP."

8. Story About My Bosses, Part 1: Whenever I meet someone new at the cafe where I work, it turns out that one of my bosses, Mike, has been talking about me in glowing terms beforehand. It leaves me at once flattered and embarrassed.

9. Story about My Bosses, Part 2: Whenever I hurt myself in the kitchen, like a burn or a cut, my other boss, Helen, always takes my hand and examines it for the seriousness of the injury, then personally attends to my first-aid. It is an unusually charming and intimate action within the confines of a job, and it always makes me feel so glad that I'm working here.

10. The Big Confession: When I first met Amy and asked my other literary friends about her book, they all said it wasn't very good. But then I read it myself and I loved it, even laughing out loud in public at such a volume sometimes that my neighbors at the cafe started giving me dirty looks. Then again, I'm about the only person I know who loves Douglas Coupland.

11. I am always deeply touched when I'm riding the red line in Chicago and right before the Fullerton stop the brown line comes rushing up from another rail to suddenly run parallel to my train, and I look over and someone my age in the other train is looking right back at me. I am struck with an obsessive desire to know that other person's story and it is right at these moments that I have an unshakable belief that Chicago is the greatest place on the planet to be at this particular moment in 1998.

Postscript: Amy really did give me a penny.