I don't know why I check my blog every day to see if anyone commented. It's kind of uber pathetic... like Roberta Sparrow in Donnie Darko who just kept hanging out next to her mail box waiting for a letter from the future (or was it the past... I'm still a little fuzzy on that.)I guess I just have these lingering dreams of grandeur that someone somewhere will read this stupid blog and say: "Oh my stars and garters! This person is delightful! A breath of fresh air in this blog heavy world!" (Hey! I'll write the review for them! Although, I think if someone said 'stars and garters' they aren't really my target audience in the first place.... sigh sigh.) Anything to help me continue to make my "living" in the arts. I've even started submitting original LEGO designs to the LEGO gallery as my new obsession... in the vain hope of being discovered as an unknown LEGO savant.
Help me LEGO wan Kenobi... you're my only hope.
I've always wanted to write a children's book... write and illustrate. I've seen some of the people out there who get published and it's a real head shaker sometimes... like, it can't be that hard if our local crazy-church-arsonist-bag-person-scary-psycho-dude can get books published... can it? And I don't just mean do-it-yourself publishing... I want real royalties, and a real agent, real money... I'll even let it go the e-book route.
Speaking of e-books... I'm not sold on them yet. The e-book readers are cool gadgets (see previous "Whore" blog) but there is nothing like holding a real book, smelling the book, feeling the pages, tucking the book away in a pocket, opening a book and finding a pressed leaf as a bookmark, treasuring the book... somehow, that mystique is lost when you e-read. Also, what about book sharing? With licensing you can't just send the file to a friend and you can't give them your e-reader cause then you'd have nothing to read or it may get broken. Vicious circle of solitude there.
I have comfort books. Books I could read over and over a million times (and probably have). Books that are like a soft blanket. I have books that I like to smell at times - just smell... the smell makes me feel better, makes a day seem ok, reminds me of the first time I ever found that book and the joy of reading it. Some books can do that by just sight... G.C. Murphy's in town used to have books downstairs in the basement. Every time we'd go to town, I'd make mom take me there... records were upstairs, books and toys down. My ultimate goal was to see if the latest Trixie Belden paperback had made it to Murphy's. The first one I ever bought was number 14 - The Mystery of the Emeralds. I was hooked. My OCD kicked in and I managed to purchase all 34 books of the original series at Murphy's before they disappeared - all the same cream colored goodness with the oval picture on the front page... sigh :) Murphy's only carried a couple different titles of Trixie at a time so I had to keep going back - although this did give me a chance to earn more money. A paperback, Trixie Belden book was... wait for it... waaaaiiiiitttt for it...
$0.95
Yep.... NINETY-FIVE CENTS! BRAND NEW!!!!!! Even with the price increase, they never got to be more than $1.50. You can't even get a can of pop for that amount of money now! And that was a lot of money to me. I can't say that I bought every book myself, but my parents saw how much I loved to read and how much these books meant to me, so I can safely say they helped me get my fix in the '80's.
A lot of years later, my very first ebay experience would be Trixie Belden. I had just quit my job and was depressed and low... very very loooooooooooowwwwwwwwwww. I saw, on ebay, a set of the original hardback Trixie Belden Books... like the ones I used to check out of the library until Murphy's had the paperbacks in stock... the ones with the smell, the feel, the weight, the pictures... the Deluxe editions. A complete set - books 1 to 15 (all that were published in that hardback edition). I had to have them. I had to feel better. I had to hold them and smell them. So, I bid... I won! I spent money that I had saved and when those books came to my house I was ecstatic. The world was ok, I was ok, I had Trixie.I'm pretty sure an e-reader will never ever give me that sensation... and I don't think I want it to, either.
i am very sure that this comment will make you smile =]
ReplyDeleteYou are so random :) I feel the same way about comments, though I've stopped trying to be a professional blogger and am enjoying life once again. That got to be overwhelming trying to publicize myself in the right places! ALso, I have a childrens series in my head that I'm going to write someday. Also, I HATE that you can't lend/borrow e-books...that's my biggest beef with them (and the smell!).
ReplyDeleteI feel the same way about books in general...and Trixie Belden in particular. I too check my blogs for comments that never come. It's okay. I write for my own pleasure much like I read for my own enjoyment. Keep it up. :)
ReplyDeleteHmmm....never read Trixie Belden. Now, Nancy Drew was another story. And I'm surprised that J-rok never mentioned her personal collection of the Boxcar children! But my all time favorite.....HEIDI. Just wouldn't have been the same on an e-book. Heidi is still in my den holding up a lamp. I love her.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I read your blog but don't always comment. I might be a blog-lurker. :)
Hello, my dear. Good read on your love affair with books. I feel the same way...my original copy of The Great Gatsby is one of my most treasured possessions.
ReplyDeleteBut you shouldn't care who reads your blogs. Those of us who know you, adore you. And the rest? Eh, eff em.
Tracy