Have you seen the Lewis and Clark program on Channel 12 on Tuesday nights the past two weeks? I've been reading Sacajewa, by Anna Lee Waldo. It is an excellent historical novel - a most extensive portrait of a significant figure in our history and her people. It goes very well with the course on new world explorers I've been taking at Camden County College, taught by Judy Okun. She is a brilliant teacher who combines human history with weather history, geography, environmental and ecological concepts, and gives the most interesting comprehensive view of whatever subject she is teaching. I've taken three courses with her. She actually has a following. Many people in her class say they will take whatever she teaches because she is so good.
Anyway, I went to Murphy's Book Loft after class to get a copy of a coffee table book on the Lewis and Clark Expedition that I thought I remembered seeing there a long time ago. Also I wanted to see how it was developing now that it is under new management.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find the book I wanted but, of course, I found three others that I wanted instead:
a handsome coffee table book called The West, by Geoffrey Ward, a paperback called The Uncommon Soldier in the Revolution, and Of Batsto and Bog Iron. All of these came to a total of $15!
Then I got a bargain desk chair at Belia copy center, which is THE BEST copy center there is. They are fast, reliable and very reasonable on any of the many kinds of copying and spiral bound book copy work that I have done there. They are located on Broad as you enter Woodbury from the north. The chair was $20. This is a funny coincidence because I had been eyeing their desk chairs for a couple of years but they were too expensive at $69 to $99 (reasonable, I guess, but more than I wanted to spend). The last time, I asked myself, "What would you WANT to spend on a desk chair?" and the answer came "$20" just like a wish answered, there appeared a dozen or so 2nd hand and nearly perfect desk chairs for $20 each, so I had to grab one while they still had them. There is now only one left.
At Murphy's the woman at the resgister and I bemoaned the fate of books and book stores. I don't want an e-reader I don't want to read on an electronic device. I want a book, preferably a hard bound book, and I want to underline and highlight and xerox pages, and put it in my bookshelf and get it again later, and maybe even lend it to someone who shares my interest.
I hope it is not the case that books and book stores become another one of those things that I look back on with nostalgia. So, go to Murphy's and help them stay open. They don't have as many books as they used to have and SADLY the monumental collection of magazine they had (which I LOVED) has gone into storage, but there is still enough there for a serious book lover to find a book to adopt. Happy Shopping!
Jo Ann
The Loft of Mullica Hill 856-478-4928, 53 N. Main St., Mullica Hill, NJ 08042 the loft 53@gmail.com
www.murphysloftbooks.com
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