sometimes the smallest error, onto the slightest
step, and then into a lighter step, or
rather: as if skipping along - with added sactions
by the wind from behind -
toward a yacht like outpouring of movement -
alternatively?
London will make them, or rather make mince
meat out of them: you see them sometimes -
in suits, with something still attached to their sleeve:
the label, sometimes a tailor's brand,
or at least the suggestion: pure cotton -
you see them sometimes, a rare thing to watch,
what with us "cool" urbanites, it's almost a comedy
sketch... a bit like walking with undone
shoelaces, gambling on whether one of your
feet will step onto the other' foot's shoelaces -
and wouldn't that be an avalanche....
but there's an even more subtler faux pas...
for any budding bibliophile, it's a must to see!
i already did it with one book,
but it would seem, i was not to make the same
mistake twice...
how did the first faux pas happen?
all the way from Edinburgh, from Barnardo's
bookshop - i still can't believe i have a 3 year
tattoo from that city, burning up my mind -
and will ol' jack mind, if i tear that flag up?
well... what with union in the olympics...
but then scotland v. england in euro 1996 -
and i remember that year... and that goal
by Gazza... mighty ****-heads, i salute you!
back to the faux pas... and i dare say, only
committed from lack of previous interaction
with such a specimen... books stacked from
floor to nearing ceiling, and not a single book
prior that could be thus categorised:
hardback... with a sleeve...
indeed! a hardback with a sleeve... sure,
there are hardback books in this library -
and if you watch Roman Polański's
9th gate... you'll get the fetish -
but not this first hardback in the library -
a hardback with a sleeve...
the anatomy of mandess:
volume 1 people and ideas
essays in the history of psychiatry
edited by w. f. bynum, roy porter and
michael shepherd...
yours, for 30 quid from that bookshop
in Edinburgh...
so you ask: where's the faux pas?
i took the book with me to public places...
i read it on the tube when i moved about
the great yonder of the city: that never shuts up.
the faux pas is this:
and only the context of the hardback -
you ensure the sleeve remains pristine...
hardbacks are twice as heavy as paperbacks...
the sleeve is ornamental anyway:
you don't read a hardback with a sleeve still
attached to it... you take it off...
hardbacks aren't that ornamental after a while...
not to mention the added agility of holding
a hardback book without the sleeve...
i should have figured that out when i ordered
another book via the internet:
julian jaynes': the origin of consciousness
in the breakdown of the bicemeral mind...
no romance akin to a bookstore these days...
another example in the library that is a hardback
(albeit without a sleeve)...
and hence onto the third example
that connects the two:
heidegger's ponderings ii - vi...
another hardback, and only the second identical
concept of publishing: a hardback with a sleeve.
as such, it is a very rare faux pas, i have already
stated that - i.e. reading a in hardback in public
places with the sleeve still on it...
it's only now, having peched myself on the windowsill
and calmly taking sips of bourbon! (yes, i needed
a change) that i "revolutionised" the concept of
reading a hardback... oh the added comfort and
the increasingly accessible grip... what with the sleeve
go, a sleeve that's slick...
then again: i never treated books like ornament pieces,
so i wouldn't know whether a library
is more about being useful, or merely something
akin to a wardrobe, or a lampshade...
but there are people who treat books like lampshades,
ornament pieces...
but if anything is certain:
the Romford library is a disgrace!
an utter disgrace!
i couldn't find any books in it that i own!
the Ilford library on the other hand?
well... it got me a school-leavers' prize in history
from the entire year-group just before we embarked
to university... that's what the Ilford library
is capable of supplying... i can't remember the exact
title of the essay, but it was concerning
the catholic counter-reformation... jesuits and
ignatious loyola...
so! as it stands, don't be next one to cross the line
with the faux pas of reading a hardback book
with a sleeve still on it in a public place - well any place...
it's uncomfortable (for one), but it's
actually a: book as a furniture ornament (aesthetic) accent.