Books that need to be turned into films

Tim Sandlin's first novel, Sex & Sunsets, ought be made into a movie. It's better than the three books of his that have been turned into films. Yes, it's quirky but come on, in the Post-Twin Peaks world we live in, quirky is GOOD.

Hey filmmakers, get on the stick! Turn this book into a film already. Katie Holmes as Colette. Come on people, use your imagination! This book is dying to become a film!

Bookgasm returns - yes, I have a "problem"

 Once upon a time the milk crates in the photo were my book cases. Some of them. At my worst I had more than a dozen such plastic cubes before we were able to get wooden book shelves. 

There's a video I have watched a number of times and it has to do with two people who meet at a wedding reception but they are way off the outside of the entire affair and they strike up a conversation - it's about 20 minutes long and I find it sweet but that's not the point - early on the woman talks about how she has drained the battery in her phone because she kept checking it, basically to not be bored with her surroundings, and she then admits "I have a problem" and the way she says it just strikes me as both humorous and truthful. 

So, yeah, I have a problem. I have BOOKGASMS each and every time I go into a library or a bookstore or a flea market or a thrift store or a little (free) library. Anywhere there are books to be surveyed, I can be found surveying them. 

I live in an unopened book store. I don't think my wife would argue with this assessment although she would also say she never agreed to do so - so, I have some issues to deal with. And several years ago I abandoned this blog to focus on my chapbook blog but I am back because I am going to use this blog as therapy. To ween myself, and/or prepare myself to open an actual (someplace other than where I live) bookstore since I have been collecting for decades and can never read them all. Not in this lifetime or the next. 

In fact, I have to say, I have been gathering these books for the purpose of dispensing with them one day. They struck my eye or they were signed by author or they were important books by neglected authors who critics love but readers are not clued in on. Books for folks NOT the general public. And "I have a problem". I can't say no to these misfits, these orphans. 

 "It strange what happens with old books? They choose you. They reach out to their buyers – Hello, here I am, take me with you. It’s as if they were alive.” From The Nautical Chart by Arturo Perez-Reverte Page 53

Once I post this I am going to go back to re-read this blog in its entirety to capture the aroma of my original intent. And then, I will proceed. 

a book I wish I owned

Beat Museum, San Francisco, California

I have had the pleasure of being able to supply The Beat Museum in San Francisco with a number of Beat Generation items over the years. Recently the bought some rare postcards from me as well as books by the subjects of the postcards: Burroughs, Ginsberg, Creeley. I am glad to have been able to continue to their ever-growing collection.

instantly recluttered

my life is far from empty. my book*gasm continues to expand and overtake my office. It's almost not fair. But it certainly is consistent with my heavy book intake. Many more come in than go out. Troubling in its accumulative nature. Oi vey!

i have an office

As of mid-December 2014, I have an office. The office used to be the right half of what used to be the front porch at the house we moved into in Sept. 2009 and bought from the owner in Sept. 2013. It was one of my wife's first BIG projects. The other half of what used to be the front porch is now our "mudroom". This half, my half, is my work space and book shelving unit and (vain) attempt of creating order out of chaos in my life. An attempt to reduce my "little pieces of paper" problem. It's working, to a degree, but it isn't like a witch with a broom sweeps through and unclutters the place - or my brain. It's in incremental stages.

I have for a number of years used our living space to build a library and conduct a small book selling operation which did, in 4 brief years, help me to pay off my Masters Degree student loans from George Mason University. That's sayin' sumtin'.

I learned alot along the way. About authors, publishers, Presses, illustrators, etc. That process continues even as my attention from this blog obviously has verged elsewhere. I will talk about my various finds and sales soon.

chopped