Warm Furlough Day

Where would I be on a warm furlough day? Bookstore. Just get lost in it, browsing with insouciance, pulling random books whose spines speak to me. After a full morning of reading For Whom the Bell Tolls, I agree Hemingway’s style is strong and detailed, but with so little happening over so many pages, I found myself becoming impatient with the story. Perhaps just a sign of the times and my own personal taste, I put the book down after reading only half of it today. Off I went to Dog Eared Books to see what might catch my attention. On an unseasonably warm day, foot traffic is sparse, let alone the money-spending crowd.

Dog Eared is one of my favorites in town. It’s right in the middle of Mission/Valencia, where good food and delicious coffee are to be had. It’s the perfect place to be stranded in. I was looking a copy of Somerset Maugham’s The Writer’s Notebook, but to no avail. On the tables nearest to the cashier are heavily discounted new books, including selected NYRB titles. Last time I got Evelyn Waugh and John Williams books at heavy discount. Today upon careful probing I have discovered two new authors whom I have never heard of: The House Behind the Cedars by Charles W. Chesnutt and A Meaningful Life by L.J. Davis. The former concerns a black family that decides to cross the color line in order to claim their share of the American dream around the turn of 20th century. The latter reads like a comedy of a city dweller’s effort to will himself a meaningful life by purchasing and renovating a collapsing ruin. Two promising books that will accompany me to Asia.

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