Dreaming of bookshelves

Because I am a bibliophile, I am drooling over a shelving and storage sale at a local hardware store. I am dreaming about someday--when I live in something bigger than 385 square feet and above the poverty level--having awesome bookshelves made of steel (able to hold 500 lbs. per shelf), structural foam (250 lbs. per shelf), or resin (150 lbs. per shelf) and not flimsy, slowly bowing plywood (20 or 40 pounds per shelf).

I mean, I could easily double stack on every shelf of these monsters! Including the top shelf! I'm a bit giddy just thinking about it, so it's a good thing I'm sitting down.

I guess I would have to find out how much the big kid bookshelves weigh and how hard they are to transport/put together, but since I don't know, I can dream with complete freedom. Le Sigh . . . .

My apartment is kind of a book death trap, and I live in fear of the day one of these overburdened shelves gives up the ghost and rains death and destruction and books on my floor. I am most concerned about the books. What if they get damaged? What if it happens early in the day, and by the time I get back to pick them up in my loving arms, they are permanently crippled, irreparably creased from hours of being bent beneath their own weight?! The agony!!

Do you have any future book shelf dreams?

Psyching you out, Sherlock

What if Sherlock Holmes lived in modern times, and no one would believe his awesome "deductive" reasoning?  What would he have to resort to in order to get modern police to take him and his ideas seriously? 

I wonder if he wouldn't have to pretend to be psychic, like the main character of the TV show Psych.  Raised with fearful powers of observation by a strict father on the police force, Shawn Spencer has finally found a way to use his powers for good AND tick off his dad at the same time.


One of the best things about this show is the continuing storyline interaction between Shawn and his dad.  They don't get along, but they really care about each other, and their awkward interactions are really a treasure.  Then there's Shawn's relationship with best friend Gus.  As the production staff comments over and over again: they've been friends forever and will sell each other out at the drop of a hat.  Kind of priceless sometimes, especially considering how low the budget for this show apparently is. 

If you ever wondered what it would be like if Sherlock Holmes was a comedy that follows a sharp boy who really never grew up and his goofy, nerdy best friend since childhood (not exactly Watson) as they solve mysteries and pretend to be psychic, check Psych out.  Even if you never wondered, it's worth a watch, not for the mystery but for the banter and character relationships.  (And the commentaries, which are sometimes astonishingly funny and informative.)

Man solves mysteries using mostly powers of observation: this situation is quite different depending on what "genre" it's set in, and I find that fascinating.

I bet if Gus told Shawn the world was round, Shawn would get mad at him, too.

Are there any TV shows you like where the set-up for an older story seems ported into a new time and place with interesting results?  Or, if you're a Psych fan, do you have any episodes to recommend for the new viewer?

When everything falls: Finding Beauty in a Broken World

It's a good think I put off reading Terry Tempest Williams' Finding Beauty in a Broken World until after I finished my thesis because she does what I was trying to do better than I could. She takes the idea of mosaic and weaves actual mosaic making and art into her story of trying to piece together something meaningful out of the fragments that are left of our lives when everything falls apart. As soon as I finish the memoir I'm reading right now, I will dive in to this, and I will have plenty of tissues.

When life shatters you, make a mosaic.  Good advice.  :)

Yuri's Blessing

"Yuri" is what I call one of our regular customers even though that's not his name. For a long time, I could not remember his real name, and I knew a man with a similar accent named Yuri. I think.

He is from eastern European and speaks with a wonderful, peanut-butter-thick accent that he wholeheartedly enjoys using. He is lonely, gregarious, and now attached to a cane he looks at with distaste. His hair and short beard are neat and white, his humor is gently dry, and he reads voraciously (always has a new book he heard about and wants to discuss).

He loves children; I learned this at the same time I indelibly learned his real first name. A baby was being fussy, and the mother was calling his name to soothe him, and "Yuri" stepped over to ask what the baby's full name was.

"That's my name, too," he told the baby with a quick grin. He then went on to explain to the parents how his name was the eastern European equivalent of the baby's. "It's not a popular name like it was back when I was born," he told them. They were nice people, and they let him talk. I think it helped that the baby, also fascinated by his accent, quieted down when he spoke.

"I hope you grow up to have as good a life as I have," he said to the baby, and then the family left the store.

Sketches of retail customers, part 1

"Hey, there, gorgeous," he leered as he looked through the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue.  He didn't quite make eye contact; he never really does.  He looks off to the right a little, at the floor, so sometimes you're not sure he's talking to you. 

He's one of our regulars.  A younger man, kind but a little faded, always accompanies him and, I suspect, guides and keeps an eye on him. 

The older man shuffles, extremely stiff, but if the other man isn't leading him, he stops, like a robot turned off.  They usually sit in an alcove somewhere.  The younger man gets up to get coffee sometimes, or to briefly look at merchandise.  They never stay for very long.  The old man always leaves behind Sports Illustrated Swimsuit or GQ or Esquire or Penthouse (or some combination of all of these).

The first time he made inappropriate comments (the first time I saw him), I was offended, and then I realized he's actually kind of a crazy old man who's not all there.  I felt a little guilty for getting so mad.  By now, I realize it's a spinal reflex for him.  I write it off as expected and try to stay out of his field of vision.

Today, I got blindsided, and he made his usual creepy comment.  I turned at the sound and faced them but did not react.  I kept walking.

"Is that a boy or a girl?" he asked the younger man in a quavery, slightly hurt, overly loud voice.

"It's a girl," the younger man answered quickly. 

This cracked several of my co-workers up later (and will probably make my poor mother sad).  The man is infamous in our store.

"You should report this to a manager," one of the newer employees who hasn't encountered this odd couple said.

And I wondered.  His comments are unwelcome and inappropriate.  They make us all feel uncomfortable and awkward.  Our managers should protect us from problem customers like that.  But, then again, he's not all there. 

I guess I feel like I should put up with it because he doesn't mean anything by it because he's not in full control of his faculties. Is it appropriate to get mad?  To seek protection?  If everyone did that, the poor guy would never be allowed to get out in public.  Should we put up with a bit of uncomfortableness for the well-being of others?

I was thinking about this from a writing perspective.  Who should we (be allowed to) exclude from the public view and why?  This has changed over time and is different across cultures.  What an odd way to start thinking about it again . . .

The grass is browner

No matter how sorry you're feeling for yourself, there is always someone in a much worse situation.  I kind of can't believe this, but then again, I kind of can, and it makes me really want to seriously consider becoming a hermit or a monk.  What other laws have consequences like this that we aren't hearing about?


It's like something out of a dystopian future novel nightmare.  Be sure to read the more full account from the victim, but the basic deal is that a guy got stopped at a random inspection at the Canadian border, asked why, ended up being hit in the face and pepper sprayed and is now a convicted felon.  He's an author of science fiction, which has a rather close relationship with dystopian future nightmare novels, so he's aware of the precedents, but I bet he never expected to be victimized quite like this.

Should a law like this that takes away our civil rights be allowed to exist? 

We're not even talking about war time or because of suspicious activity here.  He was randomly stopped, probably like we had to randomly screen people coming through security checkpoints when I worked for the government. We did not do it because we suspected them of wrong-doing; we did it because they were the Xth person through the metal detector.  We always had to be alert in case our randomness caught a real baddie, but not this kind of alert (which reminds me of a kind of alert Dave Barry mocked in a particularly memorable article about dogs who alertly watched a thief break in and steal their masters' stuff), the kind of "alert" that hits people in the face for asking perfectly logical questions and assuming they have rights, the kind of alert that feels justice is served by this outcome.

I'm more than a tad disturbed by this.  Any thoughts from you on it?  (Feel free to comment anonymously, since Big Brother may be watching . . .)

This month's author binge: Cleary

I am going to have to have a Louise Erdrich binge sometime soon.  Right now, though, I'm on a Beverly Cleary kick. 

I'm still trying to work out ways to tell a really non-dramatic slice of life story through the eyes of a quirky 12-year-old girl.  I think, from all the reviews I've been reading, that Cleary knows quirky and kids voices.  Even if the ages aren't quite right, I think there will be value in immersing myself in the voices and stories.  They're also short and fun, so it will not be a chore. 


Sorry, Louise, you'll have to join Mrs. L'Engle on the backburner for now, but I know you're there, and I'll be coming for you as soon as I get a better job and have some time freed up from job-hunting and applications and rejection to read more again.

Do you have any suggestions of books with great, quirky, young point-of-view characters?