33/365-2
JMK’s no slouch in the book department, either; he’s so hard-core, in fact, that there are two, count ‘em, two copies of Feynman’s Six Easy Pieces. (Sure, one is analog and the other is digital, but I think he still gets extra credit.)
32/365-2
It’s 20 years this month since I moved to Ohio to go to graduate school, earn my PhD and dazzle the world with my literary-critical prowess.
It’s 14-1/2 years since I quit graduate school, having dazzled no one, and yet the books still remain.
31/365-2
It was a huge pain in the arse to move our gazillion boxes of books, but it’s nice to see them on the shelves. We initially tried to bring some order to the shelving process, but ultimately ended up with very broad categories and curious juxtapositions; I’m going to make a virtue of our haste and desire to see the books unboxed and simply suggest that it highlights a charming eclecticism.
30/365-2
My mother liked pulpy mystery novels — not quite as salacious as some of these, but not too far off the mark — and had a collection of them stacked sideways like this on the shelf near her reading chair.
That chair had a high back and swivelled around; I used to sit there, turned toward the corner, pretending I was mysteriously hidden by that chair, and study the spines of the books. I re-sorted the pile by author, title, and again by color, and, finally, when I couldn’t stand it anymore, I’d pull one out of the middle to admire the cover art.
Sometimes, it was a disappointment: just text, or some gumshoe in a fedora. Often, though, it was a thrilling delight: some lurid noir-ish scene, a threatened blond and guns blazing. I’d study it for a while, then slip it back into the stack and try to forget which title it belonged to, so I could be surprised again next time.
29/365-2
I slept fitfully and woke up feeling a little out of sorts, which is a shame, because by the time I ended up in sorts, it was already way too hot for hiking or a bike ride, so we took a quick jaunt out to Inniswood before other errands, just to get out of the house for a while.
Can’t wait for summer to be done.
