“I Only Surround Myself With People I Find Intellectually Stimulating” – My Girl
I love to read. Love, love, love to read. There is really nothing better than sitting down with a good book. Oh, except for maybe Jamison on the rocks after a bad day, but that’s a horse of a different color. I love books (so does Oliver, I read them and he eats them – but at least he has some appreciation for them), I love bookstores, and I love libraries. I prefer the old books to the new, mostly because I like the way worn out, faded paper feels on my fingertips, and old books smell the best because they have a history that new books don’t. At any rate, both make me a happy lady. On stressful days and good days alike I go to the library, sit on the floor and read for hours. I’ll never understand those who choose to sit in chairs, because it takes all the fun out of being in the library if you can’t sprawl out on the floor and read while the librarians yell at you for making a mess and other patrons stare, thinking you’re a wack-a-doo.
I’ve always liked to read, even when I was little but my love affair with books really began in 1999, when I read Jodi Picoult’s The Pact. Now, that’s all well and good, but I didn’t always appreciate bookstores and libraries… not until I went to college, in Boston, where you can find a bookstore on almost every corner. Now I’m home. And I needto fill my reading void. I spend a lot of time at the public library, but it’s pretty miserable in there. It’s too small, and all the books look sad and cramped. Sometimes I think since I’m unemployed I should become a cat burglar on my down time (which is all the time) and rescue some of those distressed books and set them free. It just seems like the right thing to do. Anyhow, the other day, my girlfriend and I are looking for a book, and can’t find it. Picture us in a bookstore the size of a walk in closet (not Carrie Bradshaw’s because that thing is ridiculous), my claustrophobia is kicking in and I am in full panic mode because I am surrounded by books on all sides, and hating it. There’s not much to this place, and if you don’t see what you’re looking for, it probably isn’t in stock. We walk to the counter and ask the woman behind the desk to plug the book into the computer. Our guess is right, and they’ve sold out. She says she can order it. It will come in a few days. We say, No, we need it now. We ask,where is the closest books store? ARE YOU READY FOR THIS?! The closest bookstore is the mall, 35 minutes away. ARE YOU SERIOUS?! Here is the real kicker. In this town there is one depressing public library, and ONE bookstore, the size of my Kindergarten cubby. THERE ARE 8 DRUGSTORES. EIGHT! Ocho! Huit! Acht! Eight! Really?! Who needs that much shampoo and hand lotion? I’m starting to worry about this place. Is that why all the young girls are walking around in dresses that are supposed to be shirts? Or the reason that all the boys in this town think they’re Lil’ Wayne? There’s seriously something wrong with the whole thing, and what scares me even more is that no one aside from me thinks this is a problem. Maybe the girls in this town wouldn’t be so vicious if they read Jane Austen every once in a while, and learned how to act like ladies. Maybe some of these boys would get off the couch and detach themselves from the Playstation if they read Homer’s, The Odyssey. Who knows?
There are other options, I suppose. Amazon, for instance, is awesome. I pretty much always find what I’m looking for, and a lot of the time I can find the used books for cheap. [I bought the book For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow is Enuf, for $2.99. It’s great because I am not a colored girl nor am I suicidal, but it speaks volumes to me… And the woman who wrote it changed her name from Paulette Williams, to Ntozake Shange, which means she who walks with the lions. Enough said, sold!] My only grief with Amazon, is that I’m a no nonsense kinda gal and sometimes (all the time), I don’t want to wait 3-5 days for shipping. Sometimes, I just want to walk into a library or a bookstore, find what I’m looking for, make a mess out of 10 to 15 other books, and leave with my desired book in tow. I can’t do that on Amazon, plus there are no librarians or Barnes & Noble employees around to yell at you, and that’s half the fun. What downward direction is society plummeting into if we’re surrounded by stores that want to make you feel pretty but can’t help you develop even the smallest rational thought? My guess is that it’s easier to put on eye-liner than it is to make it through Mrs. Dalloway or Moll Flanders. Well, guess what? There is stuff for you lazy people to read, also… they’re called short stories. I know that I’m starting to sound more and more like a literary snob as this blog unfolds, but it irks me. It really pushes my buttons, and where, if not my blog am I supposed to unleash my frustration? TV is great, HBO runs my life, don’t get me wrong. I sit in front of it for the majority of my day, but guess what… if you can talk on your cell phone and drive at the same time, than you can watch TV and read a book during the commercials. Compromise, people, it’s all about compromise.
