Fire in the Hole
I'm reading something right now that is making me angrier than anything I've read in a long time. I want to say what I have to say on the subject matter when I can form a coherant sentance, so I'm going to wait. But, fair warning....
Two slightly funny things that have happened to me recently:
On Saturday, I went to a big bookstore in downtown Toronto, in search of some new brainfood. It was bizarre. Thumping music (may have been Madona's latest creation). The first floor had no books, just board games, trinkets, stuffed animals, (OK, maybe they had some Harry Potter box sets), tea, soap... name it, as long as it wasn't bound on the left and full of text. The second floor was a packed-to-capacity Starbucks. Finally, tucked up on the third floor, were the *shock* books. I walked past hundreds of "The Idiot's Guide to...", and the latest trendy tae-stair-yoga-lates accessories, and finally found it. Fiction. Literature. Shock, people still read that? I had a hankerin' for some MacLennan. I love MacLennan. He has penned some of the most achingly beautiful words I have ever read in my life. Stuffed between The Shopaholic series and the latest pink-and-green with stupid stick figures slop of chick lit, was Two Solitudes. I looked on the next shelf. I looked up, I looked down. I looked behind a stack of He's Just Not That Into You. Nothing else. "Excuse me," I managed to grab a salesman. "Is this the only MacLennan you have?" "I know," he said, rolling his eyes. "Let me tell you, if Oprah read MacLennan, we'd have hundreds."
Second thing, I was walking to my (un)friendly local grocery store this evening, when I saw two guys pull up in an unmarked, sketchy van, and jump out. They were dressed in black work coats, insulated steeltoed boots, thick black toques, and work gloves. They threw up a ladder, chopped down the signage (already sabotoged, of course) for the PQ, and threw up a shiny new NDP sign. Then they chucked the PQ sign in the van, threw in the ladder, and peeled out. I just stood there and stared, and then laughed myself to the grocery store.
Two slightly funny things that have happened to me recently:
On Saturday, I went to a big bookstore in downtown Toronto, in search of some new brainfood. It was bizarre. Thumping music (may have been Madona's latest creation). The first floor had no books, just board games, trinkets, stuffed animals, (OK, maybe they had some Harry Potter box sets), tea, soap... name it, as long as it wasn't bound on the left and full of text. The second floor was a packed-to-capacity Starbucks. Finally, tucked up on the third floor, were the *shock* books. I walked past hundreds of "The Idiot's Guide to...", and the latest trendy tae-stair-yoga-lates accessories, and finally found it. Fiction. Literature. Shock, people still read that? I had a hankerin' for some MacLennan. I love MacLennan. He has penned some of the most achingly beautiful words I have ever read in my life. Stuffed between The Shopaholic series and the latest pink-and-green with stupid stick figures slop of chick lit, was Two Solitudes. I looked on the next shelf. I looked up, I looked down. I looked behind a stack of He's Just Not That Into You. Nothing else. "Excuse me," I managed to grab a salesman. "Is this the only MacLennan you have?" "I know," he said, rolling his eyes. "Let me tell you, if Oprah read MacLennan, we'd have hundreds."
Second thing, I was walking to my (un)friendly local grocery store this evening, when I saw two guys pull up in an unmarked, sketchy van, and jump out. They were dressed in black work coats, insulated steeltoed boots, thick black toques, and work gloves. They threw up a ladder, chopped down the signage (already sabotoged, of course) for the PQ, and threw up a shiny new NDP sign. Then they chucked the PQ sign in the van, threw in the ladder, and peeled out. I just stood there and stared, and then laughed myself to the grocery store.
posted by M at 8:21 PM
5 Comments:
Don't get me started on bookstores.
What does PQ and NDP stand for? Are they political parties? Or are they just extremely militant grocers?
-Suley
Is the thing you're reading something else you picked up at the "bookstore" on Saturday?
I'm glad I got to be born while there's still books.
you need to check into powells. oops sorry, forgot, you are too far away. i avoid most bookstores like the plague except powells. they are so terribly frustrating...especially those mally joints. they dont sell real books, only pretty books.
Yeah, what do PG and NPD stand for?
Unsollicited advice: try Richard North Patterson's "Escape in the Night". He's really good. Just discovered him.
Fitèna
PQ = Parti Québécois
NDP = New Democratic Party
NPD = Nouveau Parti démocratique
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