"It Is Clear That The Books Owned The Shop Rather Than The Other Way About. Everywhere They Had Run Wild And Taken Possession Of Their Habitat, Breeding And Multiplying, And Clearly Lacking Any Strong Hand To Keep Them Down"

A little while back, my bf had a photo shoot done at a somewhat legendary bookstore here in Detroit, John K. King Rare and Used Books. And he and our photog friend Brett couldn't believe that I had never been there. And here's the thing...I'm not super crazy about used bookstores, because I tend to just get frustrated with the volume of stuff and organization. But this one was an entirely different story all together.

The main part of the bookstore open to the public is 4 stories and very organized...I mean, they have maps for you when you walk in! And everything is super well-labeled. So I didn't get my less-than-5-minutes-in frustration. AND, we were fortunate enough to be able to go into the separate annex for the rare books, with John King himself and a couple other employees. And holy moly. It is a bibliophile's paradise! Books that are hundreds of years old. Classics signed by the authors. Just too much to take in! I made sure to tell the bf that he can feel free to shop there for my birthday if he was every stumped for a gift idea.

All told, I managed to leave the store only purchasing one book (Tobacco Road by Erskine Caldwell). The woman who rang me up informed me that his writing has an "interesting" approach to gender issues, which I am curious to find out when I get around to reading it. Which, by the way Ulysses is going, might be never.

So about that. I find that I have to sit down and read large sections of Ulysses at a time. That once I get into the groove of the style of writing, I can progress better. But if I only read 10 to 20 pages at a time and then try to come back and 1) figure out what's going on, or 2) try to readjust to the writing style, I may as well start at the beginning of the chapter. So I'm sincerely hoping to get in a better groove with this book. It's absolutely no joke what they say about this being the most commonly unfinished book. Because there have been many times when I've looked longingly at the stack on my bookcase of books to read and then looked over at Ulysses with the stink eye. But I'll fight through it. I know I'm not gaining nearly as much from the book as if I were reading it super slowly and looking up every detail, or even better, reading it in school (in my defense, every time I finish a chapter, I read 2 different online summaries/analyses of the chapter to make sure that I'm on the same page - no pun intended). But I'm ok with that. What I'm not ok with is the fact that I have 2 more James Joyce books on my lists. Oy.

Well, all I can do is keep moving through Ulysses and see how the rest of it goes! I'm a little over halfway. My goal is to finish it before the end of April when I go to Vegas - I'd like to pack something a little smaller and less intense for airplane reading.

In the meantime, I'll leave you with this comic from the Awkward Yeti which sums up me, every single time I'm in a bookstore (see evidence above...although more self-control was exhibited). And hopefully I'll be able to post a link to some of the photos from the photo shoot at John King...Brett does spectacular work!


Happy Sunday!