Bookstore wandering

Consider the perfect afternoon to oneself. For me, it’s time to wander through used bookstores.

Today I purchased four books. I will read them in no particular order and probably all at once.

1. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut. It features the writer character Kilgore Trout and this statement, floating alone on the fifth page:

All persons, living and dead,

are purely coincidental,

and should not be construed.

True.

2. Listening to Prozac by Peter D. Kramer, a psychiatrist who, “explores antidepressant drugs and the remaking of the self”. We’ll see about that. As someone who takes and hates her own antidepressant drugs every morning, I am suspicious of those who claim to be able to reconstruct my understanding of self. Then again, I welcome surprises in consciousness.

3. The Possibilities of Chinese Trout, poems by Greg Simison. I bought it for a few reasons. Of course, it caught my eye because of its title and its price of $1 was appealing too, but it was the inscription by the author on the first page that sold me.

to Anne

Many thanks

Sept. 25/86

Greg Simison

I will pretend to be Anne.

4. Post Office by Charles Bukowski. This one caught my eye as I was heading for the nerdy guy at the till. He smiled at me knowingly when I grabbed it quickly and without a second thought. I have been meaning to read it since I discovered the Dirty Old Man, Bukowski, and I immediately started reading it as I left the store and walked down Main Street in the rain.

First line:

It began as a mistake.

Second page, end of first chapter:

She was a good one all right, she was a good lay but like all lays after the third and fourth night I began to lose interest and didn’t go back.

Last lines of chapter twelve:

He didn’t answer. I walked down to the liquor store and bought a half pint of Grand Dad for my breakfast.

This has turned into the perfect Saturday night; alone while in the company of four interesting men.

Bukowski, the Entertainer