"A Book Must Be the Ax For the Frozen Sea Within Us"

Quick demonstration of what an immense book dork I really am:

I was in Las Vegas a couple weeks ago to run a 1/2 marathon (in addition to some other debauchery...) and on the last day I was there I had some time in the morning to kill while waiting for friends who were staying at a different hotel to wake up and recover from the night prior before meeting up with them. So I spent my time walking to The Venetian and in and around The Grand Canal Shoppes, when I came across the Bauman Rare Book store.

How is it that I find the dorkiest possible thing to do in Vegas? Looking at old books? But I did. For a sizable amount of time. I had never really given much thought to original print versions of books...it didn't really seem all that interesting to me, but to actually see them blew me away.

The only theatrical work Cervantes ever published in his lifetime which was ~400 years old? Jack London's very first printing, first edition of Call of the Wild, inscribed for his mom? An actual signed copy of The Catcher in the Rye (from what I understand, Salinger did not do this very often)? I couldn't even believe what I was seeing. And it's not like you're just looking at pictures of these on the internet. The books are right there in front of you (although certainly behind glass), each with their own story to tell of how they passed through hands over many, many years. I was completely transfixed and fascinated with each and every one, to look at the little creases at the edges of the book jackets and how the tinge of the covers had changed over time. So many of the books I had read (even an original version of The Age of Innocence) that I got so giddy excited to see. 

So if you ever find yourself in Vegas with time to kill and you're as much of a dork as I am, I would highly recommend strolling over to check this store out. You won't regret it. And if you're not interested, hey, I hear they might have some other stuff you can do in Vegas too.    

"You See Monsieur, It's Worth Everything, Isn't It, To Keep One's Intellectual Liberty, Not to Enslave One's Powers Of Appreciation, One's Critical Independence?"

We finally watched the film version of The Age of Innocence last night. It took me a while to get my hands on it, largely because I am an On Demand whore, and if the movie is not immediately available at my fingertips, I get ornery and a bit of anxiety. And I don't have Netflix, so the mister had to get it for us to watch.

And let me just say, this was an absolutely gorgeous and very faithful retelling of the book. Go figure that it was Scorcese. One of the biggest things that Edith Wharton did magnificently well in the book was the translation of the things that were valued by those in the wealthy echelon that the story centers around - particularly home interiors, furniture, food, and clothing. And all of these things were so opulently displayed in the movie - while watching it I was hoping that the costume and set designers received Academy Awards for their work, (only 1 of these turned out to be true). It's one thing to imagine in your mind that kind of extravagance and that kind of detail while you're reading a book, and another thing entirely to see it translated in even more detail that your imagination could have summoned. So that visual part of the film was done to perfection.

And the acting and translation of the story was very faithful too. The love affair between Newland and Madame Olenska is much more overt in the movie (it felt a little more reserved in the book), and the book certainly captured Newland's frustration with having to be tied to societal norms (while also revering them) more than the movie, but I think the gist of it was there. There were times while watching the movie that I think, if you hadn't read the book, you would have been thoroughly confused (characters and events that were squished into the movie without the sufficient explanation), but overall, it was a very fair representation.

So overall, I really really liked it. It's the kind of movie that I wish I was able to watch on a regular basis. Like if it was on tv and I happened across it, chances are I would stay there and watch the entire thing until it was done.

I'm plugging away on Rebecca (100+ pages down) and am already looking forward to watching the movie. Hitchcock here I come.

Happy Sunday!