Flush with my $20 of Christmas gift card cash I jauntily purveyed Barnes and Noble yesterday afternoon and two things occurred to me:
1) Most of the books on the shelves seemed stupid (and not in a good, funny way) all the new stuff appeared so uninteresting or shallow or "marketed" that I wanted to gouge out my eyes.
2) Weekend bookstore shoppers are really, really annoying. Between the cell phones and the stupid questions asked of the store staff I didn't know who to smack first.
Growing up in the L.C. we didn't have a bookstore so I drove twenty miles whenever I felt like buying a book and guess what, it was at a Barnes and Noble. Barnes and Noble was still new and fresh back then, at least in Mankato, and all the yuppy posers hadn't discovered it yet. It was quiet and air conditioned and not unlike a hip, well-stocked library. Cell phones weren't big yet, either, and you could actually lose yourself in browsing for a book without being torn out of your reverie every minute by some yammering dumb ass.
Jeesh. How said is it I'm nostalgic for the old days of a multi-million dollar chain store? I'm not even going to talk about used bookstores, or little family owned bookstores where you know the people working behind the counter. Would it be too much to ask if they simply evacuated the store every time I walked in and gave me an hour to chill out in the stacks?
Anyway. I got a new Thesaurus. It was the only book I could find that wasn't too shiny or abrasive. It cost $3.99, a reasonable price, and its front cover is a gentle dark blue with standard white lettering. It was printed in 1996.
Of course!
Blogagaard Loves to Ponder
About Me
- David Oppegaard
- St. Paul, Minnesota
- I am the author of And the Hills Opened Up, The Suicide Collectors, and Wormwood, Nevada.
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10 comments:
Man, I'm fussy tonight. Maybe it's because I burned my foot on a non-stick foreman grill.
Wait. That happened on the TV...
You burned your foot on TV?
Flaming TV soccer. Very challenging sport.
A sport which is arduous, bold, challenging, demanding, difficult, elaborate, energetic, exacting, formidable, grandiose, hard, impressive, industrious, lofty, pretentious, severe, strenuous, or visionary? But not easy, facile, humble, simple, or undemanding?
Yes. It is also a strain, toilsome, onerous, laborious, and enigmatic.
I think you might want to borrow Kelly's thesaurus.
I collect thesauruses, sort of...mostly ones I can get for next to nothing used. They span decades.
Meanwhile, I mainly use the words "dude" "like" and "um".
How will you spend the rest of your $20? On a CD or a mocha?
Missy, you're such a cool chick. You know that, right?
hA! may we all be lucky enough to collect thesaurusies!
PS. I'll blow the remainder on the next Get Fuzzy collection. That's just how I roll...
Thesaurus! From the Cretaceous period. A bony-plated herbivore whose remains are found on the banks of the Synonym river.
you know, big bro, if you had a cell phone i would tell you how amazing your blog is... hmm. If i called you in B and N wouldn't you feel obligated to answer and say hello to me ;) hope you enjoyed my christmas gift card as well!
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