the lie-berry

a former colleague of mine at our city's art museum, who subsequently worked at a public library, would mockingly refer to his place of employment with a child's pronunciation. call it lie-berry, or library, i love ours. located only about a thousand feet from my front door, i frequent it often. 


last weekend, perusing the nytimes book review, i noticed that e books have joined print books in the best seller lists. i realize that digital publishing is revolutionizing the industry and downloading books on one's e reader is the new norm. 


but i guess i'm old norm.   (just don't call me norm ;-)


not only do i love hard copy books (until recently, that would have sounded completely redundant) but i love library books. 


case in point: 

swamplandia! by karen russell. 


published only last month, i promptly went to the lie-berry to check it out. 


no luck. long wait list. they had me down as number 30 (the book was the cover review of the nyt book review, after all)


but the other day, i got my robo-call to let me know it was waiting for me. i guess the other 29 read fast.


not only do i love reading the book itself, i enjoy reading all the appendages: the back flap, 

with the acknowledgements 

but especially the curious library of congress scribblings. 

just a perusal of them alone tells a tale in itself:

1. Girls - Fiction.  2. Mothers - Death - Fiction.  3. Motherless families - Fiction.  4. Amusement parks - Fiction.  5. Alligators - Fiction.  6. Everglades (Fla.) - Fiction.  7. Ten Thousand Islands (Fla.) - Fiction. 

speaking of books, a few months ago when visiting my son at college, i came across a strange one. we had gone for breakfast at a local pancake/pie house, and while waiting to be seated i noticed a table in the reception area. upon closer look i saw it was a book sale - old paperbacks, some hardcover, a messy mix of genres. but among the peeled back dustjackets and pile of bad romance pulp an eye-grabbing cover peered back at me; a bold fauve landscape with a 50s vintage automobile cruising along a road lined with spiky cypress trees and the title "appointment in samarra" emblazoned across the scene. it was so appealing that i almost bought it - i like to think 50 cents was penciled on the first page, but i honestly don't remember. 

last weekend, on the back page of the ny times book review, an ad for bauman rare books caught my eye. smack dab in the middle of the page was

yep. you got it.....


sigh.


so the next time i visit my son you can bet your lie-berry card i'm making a beeline to the pie hole paradise to see if it's still there. 


back to russell's book. i'm only on page 113, but suffice it to say, it's a deliciously squishy evergladian mud-between-your-toes mangrove swamp of genres. one reviewer said it best and i completely agree: put to kill a mockingbird's scout in the midst of garcia marquez' 100 years of solitude, and you're close.


but don't take my word for it. go check it out for yourself -- 


at your local lie-berry.