may 13/14

bored, walked down to the berkeley public library yesterday to see what i could see. bored because: only books in current possession are history of the world (just read), wuthering heights (just read), penelope fitzgerald's the blue flower (presented to me by minz but i've put off reading it because the blurb just doesn't sound appealing for some reason) and shaun's copy (for class) of to the lighthouse which is one of those books that everyone seems to love but i. thus, no books; thus, staring at white walls and ceilings with unhappy cogitations past, present and future; thus, the need to get out, wherever out may be.

plus point of library:
25 cent paperbacks

minus point of library:
most of these paperbacks being old jeffrey deavers or about breastfeeding.

further unhappiness upon discovery that only californian residents can apply for library cards (admittedly, the temptation to abscond would have been great), but what can you do about it? browsing, emerged with a couple of old john irvings, jitterbug perfume (tom robbins), recommended by someone (forget who) in the past few months, and the things they carried (tim o'brien) which i think minz blogged about at some point in the not-too-distant past. started on the o'brien and was about 2/3 done when most unceremoniously chased out by fierce asian-american librarians because the place was closing.

finished o'brien today in barnes and noble - surprisingly impressed with it overall. was not what i expected it to be (i.e. along the lines of norman mailer/james jones etc.) very meta-; the bits where he talks about stories and war literature are, i suppose, what make the book. and, in a way, clarify the genre, and to a certain extent, all writing. take our blogs: how much of what we write is true? so much of what i say is made up it's not even funny. stories, as o'brien points out, objectify experience, but in order for them to do so, we have to fudge the details. fabricate, obfuscate, take artistic liberties, condense, change names to protect the innocent.

i mean, honesty is hard and lying is convenient for the purposes of narrative and blogs are more fun if they're bits and pieces of a story so really, why not?

anyway i digress. library. vast and varied collection, but as i said, check-out service only available to californian residents and distinct lack of decent places in the library itself to read. most comfortable location: three grimy armchairs, vacant because the vagrants of berkeley use them in turn as napping spots during the day. further minus point: no coffee. coffee a must when reading, particularly for long stretches at a time.

conclusion: barnes and noble better hangout. update: pressganged shaun into checking books out from the school library, thus relieved from woolf in the evening (for now).

Currently reading:
Such A Long Journey - Rohinton Mistry