... sucks. Silence all those thoughts that speak to the allure of reading by candlelight or flashlight. Reading in the dark should only be an act of necessity. The necessity of not getting caught reading past "lights out" by your parents, the (quasi) necessity of impressing a new romantic partner, the necessity of print consumption at night in a house with no power. The reality is actually eye strain from insufficient light and dancing shadowy text plus a numb right arm from holding the flashlight. I could not find my book light in the dark so don't go there.
Sunday was a lovely day until the storm and the subsequent power outage that led to this bit of grumpy low light defamation. (The power that did not come back on until late Monday night.) I had the good fortune of book shopping with Teresa and Thomas at the remainder book warehouse, Daedalus Books, in Columbia, MD. Bargains galore of carefully selected stock just right for literary bibliophiles. But the company was the best part of course. The book and web savvy Teresa always brings a certain bookish joy to any conversation, and Thomas is as slyly mischievous as any bright child I know. And they both have tons of great recommendations of course. What did I buy?
- The History of the Siege of Lisbon by Jose Saramago (Teresa also picked up one of these but then switched for a different Saramago)
- Nocturnes by Kazuo Ishiguro (Claire loved so I must have)
- Five Moral Pieces by Umberto Eco (because I blindly pick up all with Eco's name on cover)
- The Gate of Angels by Penelope Fitzgerald
- A Reckoning by May Sarton (at the urging of Sarton fan Thomas)
- Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie (recently picked up two of these newer Christie editions and could not pass up a third)
- Portrait of a Marriage by Nigel Nicolson
- The Finishing School by Muriel Spark (Spark is my latest acquisition focus)
- Homecoming by Bernhard Schlink (UK edition so that I do not have to crack the spine on US edition whose cover design I prefer, and recently discussed with Ti, and also picked up by Thomas)
Lunch after shopping was also lovely, there was much to talk about, and I look forward to meeting up with these two again sometime soon. Great fun to talk about book blogging with actual practitioners who are much less likely to have their eyes glaze over at the mention of Technorati or BBAW then those folks we encounter in daily life.