Book Lover's Dream

From the Speakers: BROKEN by Seether
Just Read: ONE DAY by David Nicholls--Great writing, and admirably witty, but REALLY? Did it HAVE to end that way? Gah . . . .
Reading Now: THEODORE BOONE, KID LAWYER by John Grisham

A couple times a year, I travel up to Baltimore for a martial arts seminar with some friends from school. We always make a good time of it, and one of the hot spots we love to hit is the beautiful Barnes and Noble that's taken over the old power plant down on the Inner Harbor. It's a wonderful, sprawling two-story brick building, with all the newest hardcovers and best-sellers, a great view of the water from the upstairs Starbucks, a hypnotic transparent escalator, and the best part: tables and tables of SALES!

Being a self-proclaimed book lover, I made a bee-line for the sales tables, pausing only to read the entire display copy of GO THE F**K TO SLEEP, which I highly recommend (I had tears of laughter leaking from my eyeballs). I had recently seen the newest Sherlock Holmes movie, so when I spied a hardcover copy of the entire collected stories of the great detective for $7.00, I jumped at the deal.

I mean, it was a bit like offering a dime bag to a pothead for $2.50. What was I supposed to say? No?

It gets better. As I had allocated $20 to this venture (I already had zero space on my shelf for new books), I went on to find the story of King Arthur and his Knights--legend and lore that I love--for $10.00. It was one of those hardcover copies with the golden pages and the fancy, unique-to-B&N covers. Always fun.

I can feel your jealousy right now as clearly as Palpatine felt Luke's anger.

And I had a friend of mine, who's big into King Arthur and taking an Arthurian Lore class, skim through the book and tell me it looks legit. I'm stoked to dive in.

The Sherlock Holmes stories ought to be good inspiration during Write1Sub1. I mean, talk about a deep well of imagination--how could Sir Doyle keep coming up with such amazing stories with twists and originality? Hopefully, by the time I retire as a writer (dare I hope for sooner?), I'll have the answer for you.