I was in a bookstore the other afternoon. I was sort of killing part of an evening, and I couldn’t think of a nicer place to be. Well, perhaps two nicer places to be: lakeside with a pole in my hand, a fishing pole, that is, and a small, independent bookstore instead of a big chain, but we take what we can get.
I diligently searched through the bargain books, as I’ve been cruising there before. Look for the stuff that’s marked down, then marked down again. Two items I could easily add to my copious library with no after-thought.
Elements of Style Strunk & White
T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land and Other Poems
I have a yellowed and beaten copy of the The Elements of Style, and I would tend to consider it a much too delicate copy to continually use. Intrinsic and sentimental investment? Yes.
The same holds true for that copy of “The Waste Land,” as I can recall the professor and me, I was taking notes in that copy because it was useful and easy to access.
I can recall the exact moment of purchase, especially for those copies as I’ve carried them around from state to state and location to location. For the last dozen years, I’m guessing, they’ve sat on top of my desk, along with the other heaviest used reference manuals. A couple of astrology texts, and, of course, what’s become ubiquitous for me, Marcus Aurelius.
While I have two or three translations of Meditations, I’ve stuck with that original slim copy of The Waste Land and Other Poems as well as the best reference, The Elements of Style.
I’ll be using “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” as source material here pretty quick There are a couple of London lines I’ve always loved. Or, even, Mercury material”
“Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.”
An American who loved London. Can’t be all bad.