"Katie, you're the only person I know who can make birthday cake look like suicide."
-Lee Future
I went out in Federal Hill last night with two of my favorites: Love and Lee. Lee gave me a Christmas present of a used copy of Men are From Mars, Women are From Venus with this letter inside.
Katie,
Merry Christmas. I hope you enjoy this book even though it was bought used. I believe a used book is my favorite kind of object in the world. If used books had sleeves, I would wear them out. If I could crumple one up and compact it until its component atoms of carbon crystallized into a perfect diamond, that is the kind of diamond I would marry someone with. If I could stretch a used book till its cover blocked the rain and its pages could support picture frames and windows, mantles and doorways, I would live in it.
I like the stains, the dog-ears and the marginalia. I like used books because they perch between "this too shall pass away" and "some things are eternal." The author and everyone he wrote about, the purchaser and whomever she purchased the book for have all passed away, some so long ago that their genetic lines have vanished, just as time turns paper to dust. Yet here they are. Somehow they live inside the pages and then, even more importantly, in your mind. The idea becomes a part of you, and you are a part of everyone you know until the idea is an eternal virus, spreading forever onward as if time were no enemy at all.
That is what a used book is: both fading and timeless at once.
I did not buy you a used copy because I couldn't afford the new, but because I wanted you to have a used copy.
So here is your used book. Like you and I, this book is not a virgin. It has been used and it has been thrown aside. But it has not burnt up nor melted away nor petrified. It can still be read and understood and possessed by someone new, just as you and I can. Someday new people will read over our pages and marvel at the ideas that comprise us. Until then, may this book entertain you, now and forever, whether you feel used or new.
-"Lee"
And then wrote me a Love/Hate poem on a napkin this morning as Love and I ate breakfast at Metropolitan.
Love/Hate Poem #1
"I would go to the hardware store with you,"
You claim.
Does that mean I gotta go to that baby shower?
'Cuz fuck that.
I'll go to Lowes alone.
Lee Future: One of my most favorite people ever.
7 comments:
I am awesome! It was good to see you, as always. Thanks for the post.
Jesus Christ. How did ONE TRIP TO LOWES get memorialized as my greatest downfall?
JK- I love you kids eternally. I'm so glad you love each other just as much.
While I would consider myself a photo snob, one that would exalt the qualities of a photograph over the written word - this is simply an extraordinary piece of writing.
As someone who continues to dream about having a room full of books (and those really cool library ladders that run on a track around the room!) - this couldn't have spoken of books of all sorts any better. Many people too.
My brother be straight pimpin'
- Kid
Thanks John. I want a room like that too. I went to an auction in which a house with a library and one of those awesome library ladders was on auction. The guy who ended up getting the house didn't even know what the ladder was for and decided he'd tear it out. Some people have no art in them.
@ Lee - The photographer I work for currently has one of those ladders that goes along the shelves in her studio. Its amazing. Of coarse, the first thing to do if I ever get one of those is to ride it around the room recklessly before I put any books up!
wow. just wow.
i want a ladder too...
i looking for bookshelves now but don't think i will find one with a ladder...
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