This post is dedicated to the general awesomeness of my local library.  Or rather, to the general awesomeness of the tiny “mobile library” that sits outside my local library while said library undergoes a year-long renovation (yup, year-long.  I keep thinking that there must be some really special reason for this.  Like the council has commissioned a herd of tiny, artistic goats to paint frescoes depicting the best scenes from all of my favourite books on the walls in there.).

So anyway, courtesy of the mobile library, yesterday I got my hands on a copy of Bossypants by Tina Fey.  Which was only published this year.  A slam dunk for all of us who believe that libraries are hip, happenin’ places stuffed full of new books that we actually want to read and not dimly lit hovels groaning with tattered newspapers from the nineties and decades-old copies of Mills & Boon (I’ll deliberately not take up my “save the libraries from spending cuts” rant here).

Now let me take a moment to confess my love for Tina Fey.  I adore this woman.  I first came across her in the film Date Night which came out last year.  Since then, I’ve discovered that she wrote Mean Girls, the chick flick that’s not actually a chick flick but a clever, ballsy, hilarious story about growing up that everyone can relate to.  Tina Fey is also the brains behind the Manhattan-based TV show 30 Rock.  Also clever, also hilarious.  You get my picture.

And the book is brilliant.  It’s sharp, it’s sassy and it really did make me laugh.  Tina Fey is a real person.  You can imagine her snorting when she laughs, or eating cold pizza for breakfast and not actually giving a damn what anyone thinks about it, which I love.  In case you remain unconvinced as to why you should join me in making this woman your first (and possibly only) celebrity role model, here are five of her pearliest pearls of wisdom, courtesy of Bossypants:

• “By nineteen, I had found my look.  Oversize T-shirts, bike shorts and wrestling shoes.  To prevent the silhouette from being too baggy, I would cinch it at the waist with my fanny pack.  I was pretty sure I would wear this look forever.  The shirts allowed me to express myself with cool sayings like “There’s No Crying in Baseball” and “Universität Heidelberg,” the bike shorts showed off my muscular legs, and the fanny pack held all my trolley tokens.  I was nailing it on a daily basis.  Find something like this for yourself as soon as possible.”

• “How can I give her {Fey’s daughter} what Don Fey {Fey’s father} gave me?  The gift of anxiety.  The fear of getting in trouble.  The knowledge that while you are loved, you are not above the law.  The World-wide Parental Anxiety System is failing if this many of us have made sex tapes.”

• “I think the first real change in women’s body image came when J-Lo turned it butt-style.  That was the first time that having a large scale situation in the back was part of mainstream American beauty.  Girls wanted butts now.  Men were free to admit that they had always enjoyed them.  And then, what felt like moments later, boom – Beyoncé brought the leg meat.  A back porch and thick, muscular legs were now widely admired.  And from that day forward, women embraced their diversity and realised that all shapes and sizes are beautiful.  Ah ha ha.  No I’m totally messing with you.  All Beyoncé and J-Lo have done is add to the laundry list of attributes women must have to qualify as beautiful.”

• “It is an impressively arrogant move to conclude that just because you don’t like something, it is empirically not good.  I don’t like Chinese food, but I don’t write articles trying to prove it doesn’t exist.”

• “We should leave people alone about their weight.  Being chubby for a while (provided you don’t give yourself diabetes) is a natural phase of life and nothing to be ashamed of.  Like puberty, or slowly turning into a Republican.”

Convinced yet?