The extraordinary success of Christopher Morley To warm my heart and remind me what books are to me, in his book Francis on wheels (which I recommended you here to read and I hope you have already enjoyed this darling gem), made me go to our beautiful library and locate another of his books: The haunted bookstore. In this book, we meet the characters of the first book, who moved about Frances among remote towns across the United States, settling in permanent residence in post-World War I Brooklyn.
And so Mr. Mifflin testifies about his place and that of Helen, his wife:
"That's why I call this place the haunted bookstore. Haunted by the ghosts of the books I haven't read. Unhappy, restless ghosts, they go round and round around me. There's only one way to restore the spirit of a book to rest, and that's to read it." (p. 156)
I started with a little disappointment. I was expecting a repeat experience to my feelings from his first book. I found myself reading, leaving and again returning to it, among other books I read, for about two weeks. During the reading I was struck by the realization that this is what we, the readers, 'do' to the writers; We read one book, we liked it a lot and we want the same book from them. When we don't get what we wanted, we blame like a skilled Polish woman: "I expected more from you!" And so, I decided that maybe I won't finish the reading at all, maybe I'll let Mr. Mifflin with the insights he transmits in the book like an unrestrained orator and speak thoughts that I don't agree with all of them and some of them even annoyed me me.
Then I realized something about myself as a reader. In the last year I have moved away from what I call the anti-social networks, where everything is programmed so that we only meet people there who think exactly like us. It creates a false representation of the real world and also... boring in the end. Because if I want to meet only myself and me then what do I have to look for in the world? As much as it is challenging and sometimes even irritating to hear different opinions than mine, this is where I learn the most. So with the books; If a book makes me argue with it, I've won.
And regarding my desire to receive 'the same book' from the same author, I asked myself: why? If I want the same book, then I can read Francis on Wheels again, doesn't Christopher Morley have the right to write something else? Maybe this is also my desire for future understanding from my readers, when I myself write something different from what I have written so far. perhaps.
Back and forth inside the haunted store, when many characters visit it, there is tension, a mystery that comes out of the store and haunts and attacks the lives of the characters, I wrote more and more quotes that I want to keep from reading. Because Christopher Morley, the writer, has a lot to say in 1919, with the end of the First World War. He doesn't have the naivety of Mr. Mifflin who falls in love with Helen on the adventure they set out on in Parnassus on wheels.
And so he writes to his brother-in-law in a letter:
"Last fall I had trouble organizing my thoughts and I did not write letters at all. Like everyone else, I am thinking about the new peace that is so wonderful to be upon us. I believe that we will find statesmen who will have the power to channel it for the benefit of humanity. I would like an international peace conference of the booksellers to take place (you will laugh at this) , because in my opinion the future and happiness of the world depends to a considerable extent on their hands and on the hands of the libraries. I wonder about the nature of the German booksellers?
Did it ever occur to you that the world is run by me ספרים? The moves of this country during the war, for example, were dictated to a large extent by the books that Wilson read since he was of a mind!… You see what I'm groping for in my stupidity: for some way to perceive the war (for the sake of future generations) as a glass for humanity, instead of just a blackness of stinking ash and tortured flesh and people enshrined in parades of blood and guts." (pp. 201, 207, 208).
More than a hundred years have passed since Morley wrote his book, but in the sense of war and peace, Morley of the 20th century is looking for the same answers we are still looking for in the days before the end of the war of the 21st century. And it's not that I found answers in the book, but I gathered other lines of thought than I thought were the only ones before I read it and somehow I realized that... I would like to read it again in the future.
So regarding the question if remaining או loose, I will have to return this copy to the library, but in the future I would like to purchase it and leave My own copy. Chutsamza, I love the design of Chameleon Publishing books, and as I agreed with my good friend this week, books are both for reading and for decorating our home. To me, a house decorated with books is a complete house.
about borrowing books
And a last word, about borrowing books. I've learned over the years not to lend books that I particularly like, somehow I always forget who I lent them to and apart from my mother and his mother, few people know how to return books. So if you are tidying up and find someone else's book that you once took, you can return it, even after years I am sure that, like me, he or she also misses the book they lent you.
Mr. Mifflin sums up the issue nicely:
"On the return of a book lent to a friend I know a humble and heartfelt favor for the safe return of this book, which has withstood the damage of my friend's bookcase, and has now returned to me in a perfectly reasonable condition. I know a humble and heartfelt favor to my friend who chose not to give the book to his baby son as a toy, and they didn't make an ashtray for his burning cigar or a game of "run-fetch" for his dog. While his thoughts were lost: I was in the bitterness of the long farewell: I did not think that I would return and look at his pages. But now my book in which I was happy comes back to me, and I am overwhelmed with happiness! Let us respect, and rebind the book and put it on the shelf of honor: for this book was borrowed and now it has been returned. Therefore, it is possible that I will now also return some of the books I borrowed." (pp. 71-72)
Book details:
The Haunted Bookstore by Christopher Morley, Chameleon Publishing, 2013. (First published in 1919).
"A year has passed, a year has come, I am like an Arima" (Levin Kipnis) and I wish for the end of the Tishrei holidays as a sign of healing, that we can be in the "after" that collects its fragments and snatches and buries its dead and rises from ashes and dust.
Pleasant reading and may good words be by your side always,
Lily
Another book, which is a nice literary gem, by Christopher Morley is Kathleen, published by Nine Souls.
Regarding borrowing books - the problem can be solved by placing on the desk or on the refrigerator or opening a file on the computer with a list of books borrowed and to whom they were borrowed.
Regarding the books as "decoration" for the house: I have the books in the closets in the bedrooms. And a book that I particularly liked or a book that I want people to look at - for example, a book about an exhibition in a museum that I visited - I leave on the table in the living room, so that it stands out to the visitors. In the past it was customary for the home libraries to be in the living room. Nowadays I prefer the books in the other rooms of the house. This way they are available to the members of the house, children and guests who come to sleep.
Thanks Orly!
I plan to read Morley's Kathleen :)
I'm also in favor of spreading books around the house and not just in one library.
And the idea of placing a book that will be interesting for guests to read is very nice.
Have a calm week.
nothing. nothing!!!!
You were great and you will be great!
Beating letters and words into a great creation.
I have your coffee book, I enjoy it and weave pearls into a string from it.
The coffee book I bought you is also with me, waiting for the day we meet and discover its haunted spirit.
And another small gift from me to you is attached: an article of about twenty pages on the controversy over the issue of coffee at the end of the Mamluk period and the beginning of the Ottoman period.
I'm not worried about you, you're the one who forced me to write that you have the book :)
Thank you, dear friend, and finish the reserve already,
There's a lot of coffee teasing here that just can't wait patiently🫶
Have a good and safe week and take care of yourself and us.
"The new peace that is so wonderful to land on us"
This is the peace after the First World War, this is the peace that launched Nazism and Stalinism.
And there were statesmen and economists who warned against the peace contracts.
He too, who is dazzled by the whole, feels that something is not right with the German "booksellers". Book teachers as an allegory...
I wonder if you wrote this because you read the book?
Right after what I quoted, he writes: "I hear concerns that Germany will not be sufficiently punished for its crimes. But what punishment can atone for such a vast vision of sorrow? I think she has already punished herself horribly, and will continue to do so.'
It is fascinating to me that he wrote this at the end of the first war and even before its results led to the second and even more brutal war.
Thank you for writing. Have a good week.
There is no need to read the book. Haifa is all haunted and forgotten every day. Come see bats, pigeons, mosquitoes, cobwebs in every building and a meter next to it, trees without fruit and closed sword shops. The for-sale signs stick out between the tree branches and at night it is scary to walk here. Haifa is an open book that will not be closed. Really fascinating!
You put here an impressive exposition to open a story. I'm sorry that hard days are passing by our beloved city and it is longing for the long-awaited restoration that will come. Shabbat Shalom
Hard to present Haifa as neglected.
Look what's happening in the north and the south.
Regarding these books, I especially liked the first one
I like to borrow books that I liked. It's like giving a gift
It's adorable! I liked the thought.
With the books I really liked, I usually mark, write, mark sentences or just want to keep them close to me. In the past I used to lend enthusiastically, but too many books that I loved never came back to me, sometimes they were a gift I received and were important to me...
So, closest to what you say, I will buy another book and give it as a gift to a loved one or a loved one who I believe will also love it.
Shabbat Shalom and thank you for what you wrote.
What a beautiful statement. all due respect
"Because if I want to meet only myself and me then what do I have to look for in the world?" - This is a really good point to think about. If we don't have conversations and don't try to listen and understand people who have a different world view than ours, we won't develop as human beings. Interesting and thought-provoking article.
I'm glad you stayed with this insight.
Thank you very much dear and Happy holidays.