The floating bookshop had a plan for President's Day. I took the romance novels and books in Russian out of the crates, replaced them with more serious fare, and headed to the hipster haven of Park Slope, said to be one of the most literate neighborhoods in Brooklyn. Well, the folks lived up to it today. One lady, a bit of an oddball, who shushed me when I commented on one of the books she was examining, bought six books. "I'm reading," she scolded. I do have to commend her taste, though. Among her selections were Jane Austen's Emma, Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dolloway and Michael Cunningham's The Hours, which was inspired by the latter and has a character nicknamed after the eponymous heroine. A gentleman purchased Henry Miller's groundbreaking Tropic of Capricorn, which I preferred to Tropic of Cancer, I guess because it is set in Brooklyn and has a lot more sex. Miller was a major influence on me. He taught me fearlessness in the digging of what lies deep within the soul, some of which is foul. I eventually moved away from the explicitness with which he described getting jiggy. I now try to set the stage and allow the reader's imagination to take over, adhering to the adage that states the brain is the most important sexual instrument.
Another oddball bought three Leslie Meier mysteries. He was as unfamiliar with her work as I am. I have lots of her novels, donated by Joanne, who was obviously a big fan. A gentleman whose accent sounded Russian, who said he'd stopped reading novels, was unable to resist Joseph Heller's Something Happened, his second novel, published 13 years after his magnum opus, Catch 22, as he worked on scripts, including one for TV's McHale's Navy (facts from Wiki). Another gentleman bought a book about Dale Carnegie, whose How to Win Friends and Influence People, published in 1936, remains influential today. Lastly, a gentleman bought Billy Crystal's memoir 700 Sundays. Thanks, folks.
Now playing on the 57 Chevy Radio stream: the love struck Neil Sedaka's ode to Carol King, Oh, Carol, which was answered by the lady in a song that was not very flattering. I do not remember the title. It is notable only for its meanness. Maybe she was just having fun with a friend.
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