Comments on: A Good Haul

By: Bill Ward

Bill Ward — Sat, 30 May 2009 14:05:46 +0000

I’m guessing after you’ve downed the beer and the Robo, you’re in no condition to use the condom.

I haven’t listened to Byrne’s stuff, but I totally understand how all those minor events and details should have a near-mystical significance — after all, they are those parts of ourselves most often forgotten (and hence mysterious) and least connected with the cause-effect narrative we construct to understand our lives.

By: Ben Miner

Ben Miner — Sat, 30 May 2009 13:52:46 +0000

Totally unrelated, but this reminded me of an amusing encounter with detritus…out on a walk a while back, I came to a little pagoda thing and decided to check it out. Strewn about within were:

1) a dozen empty cans of Schaffer beer
2) 2 empty bottles of Robitussin
3) 1 condom (unopened)

I feel like one of those CSI guys! But the item that really sealed the narrative I only glanced on my way out. Under a bench, a small pink piece of paper. You guessed it – a detention slip! Perfect.

Ever listen to David Byrne’s solo stuff? He dwells on notions of the mundane and the sublime, almost ascribing mystical properties to the overlooked and unimportant elements of our lives.

By: Bill Ward

Bill Ward — Thu, 28 May 2009 03:02:26 +0000

I think the only smells I’ve had on used books have been of the uninviting kind.

By: Nathan D. Jerpe

Nathan D. Jerpe — Sat, 23 May 2009 21:49:46 +0000

Had a similar experience when I picked up a copy of Dhalgren from a used bookstore. A disturbing read for all its fractured layers and graphic sex, and one made even more so by the pages themselves, which were infused with a strong and pleasant perfume that might have been there thirty years, and yet invited me all the same to pull the book in closer.

By: gaydegani

gaydegani — Fri, 22 May 2009 15:51:52 +0000

Very cool. Winchester delivers. Haven’t read Krackatoa but I want to. Saw him on TV on a History Channel explore of the island. All this armageddon stuff better not happen until I’ve read everything I want to read!!!!

By: Bill Ward

Bill Ward — Thu, 21 May 2009 16:31:26 +0000

Thanks for the love, Gay. I’ve read a few others by Winchester — his other OED book is also very good — but I hadn’t heard of the Man Who Loved China. Looks great, I’m going to order a copy today. Have you read Krakatoa? I have that one in my TBR pile.

Once I’ve read some of those others I’ll be posting my opinions — I’m thinking of doing a monthly ‘reading roundup’ post covering what I’ve read in the last month.

By: gaydegani

gaydegani — Thu, 21 May 2009 16:01:50 +0000

Hey, Bill! I appreciated you before this post but now I love you. You’ve mention books I adore: Winchester’s Mad Man, Ishi, Bird by Bird, Burr!!!

And omg, Foundation!!!

Keep an eye out for Robots of Dawn, The Man who Loved China, Myra…

By: Bill Ward

Bill Ward — Thu, 21 May 2009 12:03:20 +0000

Finding bookmarks is great (I blogged about that not too long ago at Black Gate, actually, which you can read here), they can be real time capsules. Some of my favorites are movie stubs and airplane or bus tickets, but old photographs have to be the strangest as they have you looking at some stranger over a gulf of decades.

Finding all this stuff sort of gives you a sense of the enormity of the mundane, all the billions of things going on in all our lives that just end up as the detritus of time.