Friday, January 29, 2010
BIBLIOMANIA
"Like an alcoholic who can't take a drink unless he has the bottle in front of him, the bibliomaniac can't read a book without a comfortable reserve pile of six more on the arm of his chair." -- Elinor Goulding Smith, "Confessions of Mrs. Smith" (1958)
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
THOUGHTS FOR THE NEW YEAR
A Happy and Healthy New Year to all you bookies.
With an emphasis on healthy.
Randy Cowmeadow is my first cousin, and we were best friends growing up. We did and learned everything together, including a solemn drive in November, 1963, to D. C. in order to see JFK lying in state after being assassinated in Dallas on the 22nd. Randy hitch-hiked from Slippery Rock State College in PA to Bethany, WV, where I was a freshman. We joined four car-loads of my new fraternity brothers – Alpha Sigma Phi – for the subdued drive. After waiting in line from 5 in the morning until just before 9, we were the last ones allowed to see the dead president.
A year earlier, during our senior year in high school – at two different schools, I began dating a cheerleader from our arch-rival school. She had a best friend named Julie. I introduced Randy to Julie in the fall of 1962, and until she died on Monday 47 years later, they’ve been together and raised three kids
.
Julie is the first of my generation in the family to die. No longer is it the aunts and uncles of our parents’ generation. Now our generation is beginning the inevitable disappearance. I hope Randy and I are among the last to go, still able at 80 to attend spring training baseball games near his home in Florida, and to talk about his life with Julie and mine with Linda.
I’m taking a week’s vacation in order to be at home to read, write, and attempt further reorganization of my study, an endless process when so many books surround me. It’s one of my favorite things to do – play with my books, move them around, make them logically accessible.
As I do this, I uncover books with Post-it notes fluttering from the fore-edge of a few books, reminders of passages marked to think about again, some to be shared.
● “When I escaped into a second-hand bookshop that felt like coming
home, I went into a trance.” -- Richard Rayner, in “The Blue Suit:
A Memoir of Crime”
● “Answer me, is there anything more appealing than the sight of a cat
curled up next to an open book?” –A. R. Moran, in a story “The
Hemingway Kittens” in “Shelf Life: Fantastic Stories Celebrating
Bookstores”
● From John Ballinger, in his novel, “The Jefferson Letters”:
● “The wonderful thing about having your own bookshop is
choosing the eighty hours a week you want to work…
bookstores can take as much of your time and energy as you
are willing to give, and still ask for more.”
● “As a bookseller, you have to be focused, or crazy – one of the
other – in order to survive.”
● “You can tell a lot about a person from the way he handles
books.”
● “Sitting alone in my bookshop at night, with a cat asleep on my
lap, is the closest I have ever come to peace.”
And peace to you, my readers. May you honor the memories of your past, as well as make a few more to be remembered down the road.
Bookstore George
With an emphasis on healthy.
Randy Cowmeadow is my first cousin, and we were best friends growing up. We did and learned everything together, including a solemn drive in November, 1963, to D. C. in order to see JFK lying in state after being assassinated in Dallas on the 22nd. Randy hitch-hiked from Slippery Rock State College in PA to Bethany, WV, where I was a freshman. We joined four car-loads of my new fraternity brothers – Alpha Sigma Phi – for the subdued drive. After waiting in line from 5 in the morning until just before 9, we were the last ones allowed to see the dead president.
A year earlier, during our senior year in high school – at two different schools, I began dating a cheerleader from our arch-rival school. She had a best friend named Julie. I introduced Randy to Julie in the fall of 1962, and until she died on Monday 47 years later, they’ve been together and raised three kids
.
Julie is the first of my generation in the family to die. No longer is it the aunts and uncles of our parents’ generation. Now our generation is beginning the inevitable disappearance. I hope Randy and I are among the last to go, still able at 80 to attend spring training baseball games near his home in Florida, and to talk about his life with Julie and mine with Linda.
I’m taking a week’s vacation in order to be at home to read, write, and attempt further reorganization of my study, an endless process when so many books surround me. It’s one of my favorite things to do – play with my books, move them around, make them logically accessible.
As I do this, I uncover books with Post-it notes fluttering from the fore-edge of a few books, reminders of passages marked to think about again, some to be shared.
● “When I escaped into a second-hand bookshop that felt like coming
home, I went into a trance.” -- Richard Rayner, in “The Blue Suit:
A Memoir of Crime”
● “Answer me, is there anything more appealing than the sight of a cat
curled up next to an open book?” –A. R. Moran, in a story “The
Hemingway Kittens” in “Shelf Life: Fantastic Stories Celebrating
Bookstores”
● From John Ballinger, in his novel, “The Jefferson Letters”:
● “The wonderful thing about having your own bookshop is
choosing the eighty hours a week you want to work…
bookstores can take as much of your time and energy as you
are willing to give, and still ask for more.”
● “As a bookseller, you have to be focused, or crazy – one of the
other – in order to survive.”
● “You can tell a lot about a person from the way he handles
books.”
● “Sitting alone in my bookshop at night, with a cat asleep on my
lap, is the closest I have ever come to peace.”
And peace to you, my readers. May you honor the memories of your past, as well as make a few more to be remembered down the road.
Bookstore George
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