Sometimes reaading the Sunday New York Times reminds me of the people of my tribe - the Intellectuals - and the things we share value in like books. It feels often as though the world is moving away from books and towards a world of screens, impermanence, temporary rendezvous with a text rather than a long term relationship.
I may not look at a book in my vast library for ten years but suddenly I will NEED that book and I will search my shelves u;ntil I find it. There are some books that happens with on a regular basis: BE HERE NOW is one and there have been an unfortunately large number of times when I have had to buy that book again because I just needed to have it and I couldn't find it. Another one I have looked for over and over again is The Dutch and Swedes in South Jersey, and the WPA GUIDE to New Jersey.
In the Sunday Styles section of the SNYT there was an article about rare book merchants and one of the books they entioned was a copy of Alan Ginsburg's HOWL That had belonged to singer Amy Winehouse who died of drig and alcohol abuse at a very young age. She was almost immediately famous when her son "My Dady Said to go to Rehab and I said No No No.
Her distinctive voice and delivery shot that song to the top of the charts and anyone who heard it would have taken immediate notice of it not only for the voice and style but the content - her struggle with drugs and alcohol. Anyway, she had been working out the lyrics to songs by writing in the margins of the Ginsburg book. They were looking through and getting ready to auction her 220 book collection. I thought that was an interesting valuation since both Ginsburg nd Winehouse are contemporaries not the kind of books you usually think of s rare books.
I love my books and I have loved books all my life from my earliest ages. They have been my road maps through the Wilderness that is life.
Happy Trails Jo Ann wrightj45@yahoo.com
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