Re: Behold a high horse

1

This is one hell of a sentence: "I attended a reading last night at a bookstore that placed on the set out for the audience to sit upon while the reader stood in front first reading and then taking questions seats folded flyers advertising, or perhaps merely listing, upcoming events at the very bookstore in which the reading first was to take, then was taking, and finally had taken place."


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 1:22 PM
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2

Thank you.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 1:27 PM
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3

I think the Oulipo guys probably got laid a lot. For real.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 1:30 PM
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4

actually, that first event sounds delightful.


Posted by: x.trapnel | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 1:51 PM
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5

pwned by redfox.


Posted by: Cala | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 1:54 PM
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6

$25 seems really cheap, for dinner, drinks and a new (to you) book, especially in your fair but scandalously expensive city.


Posted by: jms | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 1:54 PM
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I'll be honest: I'm probably going to attend the first event. With a suitably snooty book, of course—I'm thinking Wittgenstein's Mistress.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 1:58 PM
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yeah, what jms said. link please!


Posted by: x.trapnel | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 2:05 PM
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I found the store by googling the line about getting a BA in English. Just below it on the results list was an article about useless majors.


Posted by: fake accent | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 2:09 PM
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10

I like my nerds like my Bananas Foster, lit.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 2:11 PM
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11

I can't give you a link, x., because if we both go we'll both end up just talking to each other.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 2:14 PM
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12

what if I promise to ignore you?


Posted by: x.trapnel | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 2:27 PM
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13

I would feel terrible having enabled such rudeness.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 2:31 PM
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14

What are the best and worst possible books to bring to an event where one is invited to bring a book about "HOME"? Where would, say, Geek Love, The Birth of the People's Republic of Antarctica, or About Behaviorism fall on the traditional Unfogged scale*?

* "Will this make an attractive person more likely to sleep with me?"


Posted by: snarkout | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 2:34 PM
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15

"Will this make an attractive personMotumbo more likely to sleep withsex me?"


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 2:36 PM
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16

Tomato, tomahto.


Posted by: snarkout | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 2:39 PM
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17

Best: Wittgenstein's Mistress (duh).

Worst: Angela's Ashes.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 2:40 PM
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18

Those events do sound astonishingly cheap given the context.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 2:48 PM
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19

I would bring Twilight. What symbolizes home more completely than Edward's love for Bella?


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 2:48 PM
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14: Wouldn't that depend on precisely what sort of attractive person one were looking for?


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 2:48 PM
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21

20: obviously?


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 2:49 PM
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19: Not Fifty Shades of Gray?


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 2:49 PM
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23

I now think 17 would have been marginally improved if I had said that the "worst" option was Wittgenstein's Nephew.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 2:50 PM
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21: So we're just answering from our own personal perspectives, then? I guess that makes sense.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 2:50 PM
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25

Bring a hard-bound copy of the Odyssey, use it to hit everyone there in the face, and then take home all the food.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 2:56 PM
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26

Call it "BOOKSWAT"


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 2:58 PM
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27

Is there some kind of paleo diet war-cry I should let loose with before leaving?


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 2:59 PM
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28

Show up with a book about knives and tell people you say "hone".


Posted by: fake accent | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 2:59 PM
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You could combine 25 and 28 by bringing an actual knife.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 3:00 PM
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30

Halford's home life is best symbolized by either Lord of the Flies or Hunt, Gather, Cook.


Posted by: snarkout | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 3:02 PM
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31

Shoots, Eats, and Leaves


Posted by: fake accent | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 3:04 PM
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32

Bringing a copy of Speak, Memory might very well get you laid, except that why would you ever want to give away your copy of Speak, Memory?


Posted by: Blume | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 3:17 PM
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Now I'm imagining a scene of someone handing over Speak, Memory with a little light flirtation and . . . oh my God it is so fucking repugnant. BOOKSWAT EVERYONE.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 3:24 PM
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32: I guess one would have to buy a new copy of any book one actually liked.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 3:33 PM
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35

The temptation to bring Marilynne Robinson's novel Home is strong.

I suppose that would be sincere insofar as I'd expect to like the book - I've been through Gilead twice - but insincere insofar as I'd be using it almost wholly because of its title.


Posted by: joyslinger | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 3:35 PM
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36

For these purposes a used copy would be better.


Posted by: Eggplant | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 3:36 PM
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37

Nabokov had quite a house.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 3:36 PM
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For these purposes a used copy would be better.

One could buy a new used copy, or a new new copy to keep, giving away the old one.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 3:37 PM
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I don't think I could quite handle giving away an old copy of a true favourite unless I was quite sure that whomever I met there was going to stay in my life permanently. (Come to think of it, fairly early in my courtship of my husband I gave him a book that I was truly loathe to see leave my possession. Fortunately, that worked out in my favour.)


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 3:42 PM
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40

favour

So it seems you're assimilating nicely.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 3:43 PM
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41

I changed spell check to British English so that it gives me the ugly red squiggly line when I spell things Uh-Murican, mostly because I'm tired of my co-workers and others teasing me and figure I might as well train myself now so that when I have to write more professionally people don't wonder why I didn't take the time to do it correctly. (Obviously people know I'm American and understand that I spell differently, but I feel like it's more respectful to change my spelling. Or something.)


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 3:47 PM
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42

Fair enough.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 3:49 PM
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43

You'll still sound like this, though.


Posted by: Kreskin | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 3:51 PM
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44

Holy shit, finally understood the "DOROTHY EDITION". I was going to suggest bringing the Ratman's Notebooks. Independent People or Life: A User's Manual both would work and probably achieve the cockblock which you almost certainly seek. To remove all doubt, maybe The Collector.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 3:54 PM
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45

Holy shit, Independent People is a great idea.

I had also thought of Life a User's Manual (note punctuation).


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 3:55 PM
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46

Holy shit.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 3:55 PM
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47

45.last: So I see.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 3:55 PM
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48

Why would the punctuation matter in the translated title?


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 4:01 PM
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49

If the new Oz movie has a novelization, bring that. Also.


Posted by: fake accent | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 4:03 PM
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Why would the punctuation matter in the translated title?

By cause of the French title is not La Vie, mode d'emploi but rather La Vie mode d'emploi.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 4:06 PM
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Yeah but I don't think that's as big a deal en francais, ie the absence of the punctuation isn't as weird. Also I doubt that book's a cockblock these days.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 4:13 PM
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As a last resort, then, one can observe that the title of the book as translated in English simply is Life a User's Manual, whether or not omitting a comma or colon after "Life" is more or less remarkable in English than omitting one after "Vie" is in French.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 4:14 PM
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How about this?: You bring Independent People, I'll bring The Good Terrorist or perhaps The Sweetest Dream, we pretend not to know each other, and we'll see who does better at meeting people.


Posted by: x.trapnel | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 4:16 PM
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(If I were actually to bring a book about home that I've found quite meaningful, it'd be Galveston, but I'm pretty sure that'd be way too lowbrow for such a gathering.)


Posted by: x.trapnel | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 4:23 PM
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I'd just like to note that despite Nosflow's best efforts to make it appear intimidating, Independent People is super great and not really difficult or experimental at all. Hard to think of any fiction reader who wouldn't like it, if you're not immediately repulsed by the idea of reading about farmers in Iceland.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 4:24 PM
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Or by commenters who can't close tags.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 4:26 PM
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When have I attempted to make it appear intimidating?


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 4:31 PM
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I you can find someone who thinks _Grave of the Fireflies_ is a date movie, _Independent People_ should do fine.


Posted by: clew | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 4:31 PM
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I bought it for my father for Christmas, partly because of Halford's recommendation! (And I thought that getting him the Edwyn St. Aubyn novels, Halford's other rec. at the time, would be a little too dickish even for me.)


Posted by: x.trapnel | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 4:31 PM
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43: Weirdly, I keep getting British people telling me that they love American accents. I can't figure it out, as it doesn't accord with how I think it should be.

44, 45: I was going to suggest Independent People, but I've never actually read it; you should all be happy to know that you've given sufficient account of it that I know now I can pretend I've read it.


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 4:33 PM
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I would also never ever go to an event like this because I would feel like a perfect dickweed the entire time. That said, I'd bring Soyinka's Aké.


Posted by: AWB | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 4:43 PM
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157 -- as much as I hate to say it, your taste is not known to run to the simple, straightforward literature of the people. Though you can prove me wrong by bringing The Notebook to this event.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 4:46 PM
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So it's really that just by recommending it vigorously I've managed to make it seem intimidating? Pah!

A novel partly about home life that would either be a great or a terrible choice depending on the recipient: Springer's Progress.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 4:47 PM
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64

_Love and Capital_


Posted by: clew | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 4:50 PM
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65

The novelization of Tremors would probably work great.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 4:54 PM
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66

Seasonally appropriate Laxness on the home farm:

And when the spring breezes blow up the valley; when the spring sun shines on last year's withered grass on the river banks; and on the lake; and on the lake's two white swans; and coaxes the new grass out of the spongy soil in the marshes - who could believe on such a day that this peaceful, grassy valley brooded over the story of our past; and over its spectres?


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 5:00 PM
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Dude weekend update: I am watching basketball in some kind of super deluxe barcalounger, drinking craft beer, while some dudes play pool. So, no surprises, really.

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Posted by: Sifu Tweety | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 5:40 PM
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My friend Sabin has a new book out: http://www.gibsonsbookstore.com/event/sabin-willett-abide-me


Posted by: CharleyCarp | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 5:46 PM
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Yeah, well, I got a driver's license today and the abbreviation for my eye color is BRO.


Posted by: fake accent | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 5:46 PM
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The best and rarest sensation in literature, for me (hence for everybody because I am the best and can disrespect with impunity the irrational forces of the univ--ow! my nemesis!), is something like "This book is too much gun for me."


Posted by: Flippanter | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 5:53 PM
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17: home is an earth on which you are the last woman?

I love that book.


Posted by: Mister Smearcase | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 8:20 PM
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It's a book about being, or failing to be, at home in the world.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 8:30 PM
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I suppose it is. There's something perversely comforting to me about reading it rather literally.


Posted by: Mister Smearcase | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 9:14 PM
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39 I was obsessed with Vikram Seth's Golden Gate for a few years and used to love giving away my copy and getting a new one.


Posted by: | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 9:16 PM
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74. I do that, although not with Golden Gate (though I did like it). I gave away my copy of In the Heart of the Valley of Love a couple of times, and then decided I didn't want to be without it, so I started stockpiling copies to give away.


Posted by: jms | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 9:40 PM
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73: sure, I don't think my claim is incompatible with reading it rather literally too.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 10:36 PM
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Wlat wlat!


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 03-23-13 11:38 PM
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In the bjutt.


Posted by: Sifu Tweety | Link to this comment | 03-24-13 6:27 AM
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Take An Account of My Hut


Posted by: mcmc | Link to this comment | 03-24-13 8:04 AM
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A Journey Around My Room would be pretty literal-minded.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 03-24-13 9:32 AM
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81

I was rather impressed in a sick way last week by City Lights' vast holdings of micro-circulation American Trotskyist/Tiresome Twat magazines. Like I wouldn't have been too surprised to find the print version of my blog. And then I was impressed in the usual way by the vast holdings of books.

including the ones by people I know. perhaps I should write one.


Posted by: Alex | Link to this comment | 03-24-13 12:54 PM
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"In the Spring of 1790... he wears his "traveling outfit"--his favorite pink and blue pajamas."

When did people start wearing pajamas?


Posted by: mcmc | Link to this comment | 03-24-13 6:04 PM
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83

82: You mean white people? Colonialism.


Posted by: AWB | Link to this comment | 03-24-13 6:07 PM
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84

(1790 seems a bit early to me for an English person, but not if he'd spent time in South Asia.)


Posted by: AWB | Link to this comment | 03-24-13 6:10 PM
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83: I had never thought about the origin of pajamas--I just looked it up on wikipedia. I somehow thought pajamas were invented in the twenties, and before that everyone wore nightshirts. I was thinking particularly of stripy pajamas as worn by sitcom dads in the fifties, but then I realized that just because the pajamas were pink and blue, they need not necessarily be striped.


Posted by: mcmc | Link to this comment | 03-24-13 6:14 PM
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I'd have guessed "when the banyan became passe", so 1790 is early but plausible.

I don't know when they became more common than nightshirts. WWI, maybe.


Posted by: clew | Link to this comment | 03-24-13 6:15 PM
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I wore a nightshirt in the '80s.


Posted by: Sifu Tweety | Link to this comment | 03-24-13 6:30 PM
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88

Bring a book about HOME.

Huh.


Posted by: lurid keyaki | Link to this comment | 03-24-13 8:34 PM
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I think I'd have to bring some flannery o'connor and then just glare around all the time. oh, or I think the best ever would be melville's "the confidence man." I'm mos def bringing that, and then no one will know whether to believe anything I say or not.

just lately my husband undertook the project of selling quite a few of our books [ARGH DIE NO!] in my store, in part because termites had eaten the wall of built-in shelves in the dining room and there sort of wasn't anyplace to put them. but I saw at work one day he had put our copy of moby dick with rockwell kent engravings for sale and I brought it home in high dudgeon. "beloved wife," he said. "we have been married for almost 15 years now. I think that one copy of moby dick with the rockwell kent engravings will suffice for the both of us." and then I had to take it back and put it back on the shelf. and then, saturday, some of our best clients bought it as a gift, and I found that that copy had the tattered book jacket folded inside, in the front, still colored blue. what the fuck?!?? my husband says calmly, "that will just make it all the more exciting when we buy another used copy on abebooks that does have the jacket." but he knows I will never make him buy it. banned emoticon :-(


Posted by: alameida | Link to this comment | 03-24-13 9:19 PM
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90

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It is normal to invite one's favorite profs to one's wedding, yes? No?
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Posted by: clew | Link to this comment | 03-24-13 9:37 PM
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Go for it.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 03-24-13 9:45 PM
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