tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329706.post3848048228788641295..comments2024-03-14T16:57:29.045-04:00Comments on Whisky Prajer: Mourning The Book Storedpreimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09905531259256800022noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329706.post-30309022063562023932007-02-15T13:40:00.000-05:002007-02-15T13:40:00.000-05:00DV - I thought your comparison to an excellent rec...<B>DV</B> - I thought your comparison to an excellent record store was apt. I was *so* much more likely to discover new music in a quality record store than I am clicking through eMusic, or any other on-line store. Similarly, books. Not so many impulse purchases on-line, as when I'm browsing in an actual store.<BR/><BR/><B>Scott</B> - there really was no way a person could prepare for the closure of that store. I'm still taken aback at how traumatic it was to witness its final days.<BR/><BR/><B>TPR</B> - God love the paperback, my candidate for the best invention of the 20th Century. Well ... next to penicillin. Maybe.Whisky Prajerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14076228013022881173noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329706.post-46365211985800963432007-02-15T13:18:00.000-05:002007-02-15T13:18:00.000-05:00"Well-Lighted" was appropriate in this case, becau..."Well-Lighted" was appropriate in this case, because it is a direct reference to Ernest Hemingway's exemplary short story, <A HREF="http://www.mrbauld.com/hemclean.html" REL="nofollow">A Clean, Well-Lighted Place</A>.Whisky Prajerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14076228013022881173noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329706.post-38247740934608966672007-02-15T12:53:00.000-05:002007-02-15T12:53:00.000-05:00WP, being a published author and all automatically...<B>WP</B>, being a published author and all automatically makes you an expert in things of whcih you may not have been aware your are now expected to be an expert of.<BR/><BR/>As an example, in this post you wrote "<I>A Clean, Well-Lighted Place For Books</I>". I've noticed other writers also writing <B>"Well-Lighted"</B>. Is <B>Well-lit</B> no longer appropriate (if it <B>ever</B> was)? Or is it a writing-by-qty-of-letters thing? The more letters one uses the weightier the tome.<BR/><BR/>Just wondering, as each time I see <B>Well-Lighted</B>, I pause in my reading to do a harumph! and wonder why the extra letters of Lighted v. Lit were needed. This harumph! stoppage hiccups the Flow of Reading. This obviously increases my reading time while decreasing my reading speed, thereby reducing the amount of books I'll be able to read in my ever-decreasing window of reading ooportunity.<BR/><BR/>Just wondering.DarkoVhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11572734667248592785noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329706.post-33556055798168668532007-02-14T19:30:00.000-05:002007-02-14T19:30:00.000-05:00Ugh. I wish I hadn't read this. ;)Yours is a skill...Ugh. I wish I hadn't read this. ;)<BR/><BR/>Yours is a skilled recollection of one of the darker chapters in my life. Those last three months at the bookstore were painful indeed, and I didn't even realize how much so until years later. In this case, time did <I>not</I> heal those wounds.<BR/><BR/>On the plus side, Nicholas Hoare is still a lovely (if sparse) environment and the Book City chain has thrived in recent years. Even Chapters became less odious once Indigo swallowed them up. There's still some hope.Scotthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09329360007920754967noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329706.post-75591337486335223122007-02-13T16:45:00.000-05:002007-02-13T16:45:00.000-05:00As I walked, I could prepare myself for the next l...<I>As I walked, I could prepare myself for the next location. Here might be the holy; across the street might be the profane</I>...<BR/><BR/>I don't know about you <B>WP</B>, but I can vouch that physically searching for books at bookstores as opposed to seating/keypunching for books on the Internet also was healthier for the heart and the stomach. I always attributed my slim 'n trim days to the fact that I was out there in the physical world hunting down books and records whereas now, due to the passing of so many eclectic places (your passages about the death of your bookstore brought back memories of the late great <B>Third Street Jazz</B> store in Philly run by an ex-attorney), physical exertion is minimal and the concept of discovery is merely self-delusional. Maybe I'm just getting old and cranky.DarkoVhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11572734667248592785noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329706.post-22373499463967367292007-02-13T14:20:00.000-05:002007-02-13T14:20:00.000-05:00WP, thank you for this post.I mourn the impersona...<STRONG>WP</STRONG>, thank you for this post.<BR/><BR/>I mourn the impersonalization of high-tech information delivery. And I mourn the independence granted by physical books.<BR/><BR/>One of my favourite paperback memories involves sitting in a laundromat with my buddies in a small northern bush town, washing two weeks worth of the Canadian wilderness out of my canvas work clothes. There was no need to connect to some expensive urban infrastructure, no need to keep a hawk eye lest someone swipe the "device" and no fear about dropping it.<BR/><BR/>I suppose the new Rome has its Alexandrias too.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com