English Fairy Tales Page: 176

I’m incredibly tired. I read a bunch of fairly tales…Veritas was slow…Alex is still fussy…ummm…apparently the “fee, fie, foe, fum” thing shows up in every English tale…I guess they all have really smelly blood.

The Brothers Karamazov Page: 115

It’s been a long day. No particular reason why, just a combination of difficult stuff. Alex is still teething and he’s got a runny nose but no other cold symptoms. I had an amazingly clueless customer today. She wanted to exchange a book that she had bought a few days before. Some of the pages fell out and she wanted to trade it in for another. I told that we didn’t do that because of the nature of our business and she slammed the book down on the counter and walked out saying that we had just lost her business. And while I was very frustrated I’m also just surprised that she thought we guaranteed the books. It’s used merchandise…by definition it’s, well, used. And if I let people bring books back and exchange them I’d stop making new sales. And if you could return a book every time it exhibited damage, you could just read it and bring it back and get your money back. Anyway, I don’t know of any used bookstore that takes returns nor do I know any secondhand store that allows exchanges. And my business philosophy has always included the maxim that the customer is only right when they are right, otherwise they’re wrong.

So now the boys are down for the night but I don’t feel like reading. Unusual I know, but I just want to watch a movie and eat junk food. No movie, no junk food and no way to get them…sad.

Cities of the Plain Page: 292

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky Page: 60

So all three books are sad. depressing even. They are tragic and drearily ornate. If you read them, I recommend reading for the pleasure of the process more than the pleasure of the story. Unless of course you enjoy being depressed.

I tried to read Dostoevsky’s imposing novel more than ten years ago when I first got consumed by Russian Literature. I didn’t make it through then and I’m mildly worried now. I finished War & Peace but not Karamazov and Everyman’s went and set in 7 point font.

Book club night and Amy and I were having a good discussion despite being interupted several times by customers. Shocking I know. Then we were grilled by a guy who drifted by after his own book club meeting. Apparently he was disappointed by his discussion. Among other things he asked what some of the themes of the book were and after I told him that it centered on the irresistibility of Divine Grace he wanted to know if it also had any “universal” themes. As politely as possible I said “Umm yeah, irresistible Grace…”

The Crossing Page: 426

Cities of the Plain by Cormac McCarthy Page: 147

My poor kiddo (Alex)has not been a happy camper today. He’s been teething, and after going without for a long time, he’s cutting 40 teeth all at once. Ok, only five or six but it’s enough to make him super grumpy. In happier news, Jared finished our sprinkler system and spread grass seed today. Our front lawn is still pretty hashed (trenching leaves lots of brown patches) but we’ll get it cleaned up soon. We hope to see little sprouts in about two weeks and maybe let Alex play in the backyard in about six.

I’m ready to be done with Cormac McCarthy but not because they’re bad books but because it’s a lot of brutality, sadness and bleakness to handle. They are well-written (lots of Spanish…wish I knew more than “si”) but I’m not sure I’d ever pick them up again. They are extremely evocative of the Mexican and South-Western landscape and atmosphere (I can almost see a spaghetti western materializing on the page) and I found a lot of the detail astonishing. The abundant hospitality in Mexico among the extreme poor is explicable but still surprising. Anyway, I’ll recommend the books especially if you’re into all things western.

The Crossing Page: 335

This book is starting to feel a bit long. I’m not sure how much is left of it but I’m ready for it to be done. Of course even when I finish it I still have the third volume of the trilogy to read. I’m wondering what themes will emerge as I finish. Both All the Pretty Horses and The Crossing have involved a high level of brutality. Men shooting men, animals being abused, possible rape, mutilation etc… All of these things have been treated fairly matter-of-factly which only magnifies the horror. I don’t have much stomach for such things. I’ve never understood why people spend time reading stories or novels about things like the Holocaust. Not for me.

I took some photos of my books. Some of the shots aren’t great but I was trying to get the entire shelf in them.

Don’t be jealous Amy, that first picture shows my 1902 set of Norroaena Society medieval Literature. The little blue set behind them continues across the cedar chest. The second shot shows all my Heritage Press titles, my Folio Society titles, my leather bound poetry books and my OED. The last shot is of all my Everyman’s Library books…I’m less than halfway through and I’m running out of room…

The Crossing Page: 91

Not much reading done today either. We closed early this afternoon and with that on top of a morning together Jared and I are positively aglow with the joy of spending hours together. We got lots of work done up in the bookstore this morning and tons of work done at home this evening. Many of our books are freshly organized, furniture moved around and our yard is no closer to finished. The wind and rain this afternoon kept us from calibrating the sprinkler heads and spreading the seed & fertilizer. My books look amazing…I want more…

All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy Page: 302

The Crossing Page: 31

I actually finished Horses last night after I posted and before I fell asleep and I did enjoy reading it. It wasn’t ‘fun’ in the sense of describing pleasant or enjoyable scenarios but it was a pleasure to read. McCarthy is gifted in the American language and he tells a moving story. I’m not sure about about The Crossing yet but I imagine that it will be good too.

We went out to my in-laws this evening to celebrate my father-in-law’s birthday. Between that, dropping by David and Marybeth’s to celebrate her birthday and running over to Colby’s house we’re home late and tired…as usual. No day off for us tomorrow so it’s bedtime.

The Everyman Book of Nonsense Verse Page: 256

All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy Page: 260

Apparently today is national child endangerment day. This morning a wine glass got knocked off the counter and wile we believed that we had cleaned all the broken glass up, we missed a piece.

A piece that Alex brought to me in his mouth. Can anyone say worst mother ever?

And if that wasn’t bad enough the poor boys don’t even have a safe father to turn to. Luc was sitting in his carseat (not buckled in) and the handle wasn’t latched. Jared didn’t notice this and picking him up dumped him our onto the floor. He’s got a nice bruise on his head now and Jared felt like crap about. He probably shouldn’t though…I was the one that had adjusted the handle improperly.

Can I get an encore?

I finished the nonsense verse today and am now within a few pages of the end of McCarthy’s novel. It’s bound together with the next two volumes of the trilogy and while it’s a bit off my beaten path I’m thinking it’s pretty good stuff. The style is unfamiliar - no quotations for dialogue which also goes unattributed. But I’m enjoying it so much that I want to stop tying and go read. That’s a good sign no? I also have some 18 year old scotch to sip and a peaceful house so good night.

The Everyman Book of Nonsense Verse Page: 176

Alex got me up three times last night screaming hysterically. I think he’s beginning to have nightmares or night terrors. By the third time he woke up and cried for 30 minutes in the exact same tone, at the same pitch without a break my nerves were fried. I woke up this morning exhausted…probably because I got almost no sleep. I did get a bit of a nap this afternoon but between my second glass of wine, the day’s reading of nonsense verse and my tiredness I’m nearly incoherent.

I spent all day at home and rather enjoyed it. I got to clean, bake and most importantly, got that nap. I have to get up and open Veritas in the morning so I’m off to bed.

Don Quixote of the Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes Page: 247  Finished

This was Cervantes for kids but it was still pretty depressing. I don’t imagine a young child would pick up on the appalling sadness of it but I don’t think it would have been my favorite book if I’d read it as a child.

Cervantes got me talking to a customer about reading long, dense novels and I mentioned reading War & Peace as a teenager and he thought it incredulous that I believed I’d understood it. Of course I’ve read it and read about it since so I can’t be entirely certain how many of my current thoughts about Tolstoy stem from subsequent readings and yet I imagine that I “got” quite a bit of it back then. Is that vanity?