sometimes i think about a bookshop i went to in washington dc. it was the summer of 2022, and i was in maryland for my cousin's wedding. i was staying in dc, and one day, i decided to get on the subway, and go somewhere interesting. i wound up in what seems to have been a small suburb, filled with little gift stores and artisan sandwich shops, but the store i entered was, of course, a book shop. it wasn't the kind of place with the week's bestsellers spread appealingly on a table in the front entrance, and a YA graphic novel shelf. it was filled, filled with books. the second floor was home to must stacks, organized by author. every so often, there'd be a scotch-taped index card reading 'Tolkien' or 'Sartre' or 'Eliot'. i headed straight for the w's, as i was in the market for a new copy of "The Picture of Dorian Gray", and found that, to see the Wilde section, i'd have to stand on an armchair, and wedge myself between the shelf and a window, mostly obscured. what i found was Richard Ellman's Oscar Wilde biography, a copy of the Importance of Being Earnest, and a book that haunts me to this day. The Picture of Dorian Greyhound. it seemed to be a children's adaptation of the gothic lit classic, starring an all-dog cast. the fact that i did not buy it is my second-greatest second hand book about but not by oscar wilde tragedy.
