Aarrgh
It hurts to be young again
When the only way to be young again
Turns out to be spending two hours
In a big used books store
Well, I probably spent about three hours total today "discovering" an art store and a book store.
ArtMart (which I just happened to check into in passing) looks to lean heavily toward painting and drawing and such (and how!), but I bought a few "office supplies" things from it for my brother. They're rather amusing in a quiet way, so I think he'll like them.
Then on to my target, The Book House on Manchester Road, where I probably spent a full two hours just browsing around. It's having a nice little clearance sale (nudge to the St. Louisans [hi mcmac74656]), not in the sense of "we're going out of business", but rather in the sense of "we gotta clear some of these books out of the way before someone trips over the boxes of books we have lying around". Wow. So many books that I didn't have the slightest interest in, and yet so many that looked interesting or even begged to be taken home. There were a "historical fiction" version of Lewis and Clark's trip, titled something to the effect of I Should Be Quite Satisfied With Your Company; an amusing-looking pre-teen novel about aliens in black suits by Gene DeWeese; a collection of essays about detective fiction; several Discworld novels; and various-and-sundry other books of varying inanity. In the end, I didn't find anything that I could be sure would be a good gift for anyone, and I dumped the DeWeese and detective fiction books in favor of retaining a collection of essays about writing.
Oh, and apparently somebody's written a rather sizable novel in the form of a polite (judging from the blurbage) letter from Heathcliff to Catherine explaining what he did while away from home. o_O Riiiiiiiiight . . .
I only met the Obligatory Store Pet on the way out--a furry dark-gray cat who apparently had learned to avoid snugging up to a person unless they had already showed interest in petting it.
It took me about 50 minutes to get home by Hanley-Rock Road-170, partly due to slightly icky traffic on Hanley and 170.
When the only way to be young again
Turns out to be spending two hours
In a big used books store
Well, I probably spent about three hours total today "discovering" an art store and a book store.
ArtMart (which I just happened to check into in passing) looks to lean heavily toward painting and drawing and such (and how!), but I bought a few "office supplies" things from it for my brother. They're rather amusing in a quiet way, so I think he'll like them.
Then on to my target, The Book House on Manchester Road, where I probably spent a full two hours just browsing around. It's having a nice little clearance sale (nudge to the St. Louisans [hi mcmac74656]), not in the sense of "we're going out of business", but rather in the sense of "we gotta clear some of these books out of the way before someone trips over the boxes of books we have lying around". Wow. So many books that I didn't have the slightest interest in, and yet so many that looked interesting or even begged to be taken home. There were a "historical fiction" version of Lewis and Clark's trip, titled something to the effect of I Should Be Quite Satisfied With Your Company; an amusing-looking pre-teen novel about aliens in black suits by Gene DeWeese; a collection of essays about detective fiction; several Discworld novels; and various-and-sundry other books of varying inanity. In the end, I didn't find anything that I could be sure would be a good gift for anyone, and I dumped the DeWeese and detective fiction books in favor of retaining a collection of essays about writing.
Oh, and apparently somebody's written a rather sizable novel in the form of a polite (judging from the blurbage) letter from Heathcliff to Catherine explaining what he did while away from home. o_O Riiiiiiiiight . . .
I only met the Obligatory Store Pet on the way out--a furry dark-gray cat who apparently had learned to avoid snugging up to a person unless they had already showed interest in petting it.
It took me about 50 minutes to get home by Hanley-Rock Road-170, partly due to slightly icky traffic on Hanley and 170.