I remember standing in Bluestockings bookstore on Allen Street probably 4 or 5 years ago, flipping through this book nervously, grabbing it and pivoting towards the register and then putting it back, wondering if it was for me, or if it was for me yet. I stood there for a good 10 minutes deliberating, pacing nervously. If you are at a bookstore with someone, this is your basic nightmare (well, depends if you are the One Who Waits), but fun when no one else is with you, if not a little worrisome because YOU HAVE NO IDEA IF YOU SHOULD BUY IT AND WHAT IF YOU SHOULD AND DON’T? WHAT IF YOU DO AND IT SUCKS? If you do and it sucks (or is good but not in the You Needed It way), then you risk losing this sacred/secret idea that you always read the perfect book at the perfect time, that they come into your life just when you need them, etc etc. I’ll stop because these things are not supposed to be said out loud.
- Life is hard, here is someone
3 days ago
2 comments:
Yet another problem solved by a well-stocked public library.
I love libraries.
I love it. I find that, in those situations, it is better not to buy the book, but then I have an apartment that has way too many damn books in it. I've bought a lot of books merely because they were the latest book by an author whose previous books I had enjoyed, or because they were an obscure early work by an author whose later work I had enjoyed, or they were the story on which a movie I had recently enjoyed was based (I almost bought True Grit for just this reason). Other than a few new hardcovers (like Freedom or Tree of Smoke) I rarely get around to reading a book within two or three months of when I buy it, so there's never really a rush.
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