A Great Deal on Books

I went to Borders and found this book on the clearance shelf: Human Anatomy for Artists. To my shock and delight, it was selling for $9.99. Hardcover. I'm always looking for reference books on art, language and writing, but I'd never seen this before. So I wasted no time in buying a copy for my bookshelf.

Each page is finely drawn and exquisitely detailed with how bones, muscles, ligaments and tendons make up the human body, and how they are all interconnected. There are a few chapters devoted to how those structures change when the body is in motion (running, walking, jumping, etc.). I've always found hands hard to draw because of all the subtle and different angles and surfaces. Luckily, I found a few examples for drawing practice.

This is a great deal. I hadn't realized until later that the original selling price was $49.99, and it's listed as $36.46 on Amazon.com. $10.41 isn't bad at all.

All original writing and art copyright A. Dameron 2000-2011

Indiana Annie and the Used Bookstore

I step into the used bookstore and I feel like Indiana Jones in some sort of exotic temple with foreign languages on the walls and strange tales waiting to be read. Of course, I'm actually at Book Sellers, in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the books are all arranged according to subject: science fiction, history, poetry, mystery...the list goes on.


The store has an interesting selection of book translations in other languages, including Korean, Chinese, Japanese, German, Spanish, Czech and Portuguese. I found German translations of the "Star Wars" saga and "King Kong", as well as a Portuguese translation of "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's (Sorcerer's, US) Stone." You can find the most unexpected treasures there. Once I picked up "Winnie Ille Puh" in Latin.


The Writing section is farther down the same aisle. There are plenty of how-to books, others full of publication advice (some several years out of date, unfortunately) and blank journal books. Some are spiral bound, others are hard-bound, with colorful covers and all sorts of designs. I've found unique journal books there and have built up my stock of blank books to jot down all sorts of ideas.


In the back are several shelves of the one dollar bargain books. Old college textbooks, humor collections, classic stories and recent novels, exercise and fitness, cross-stitch patterns, and non-fiction galore. It's a undiscovered treasure chest. I've found books dating back to the 1920s (like a copy of E.M. Forster's "Captain Hornblower" and "Cartellas del Armas" from 1944), but you have to to really dig to find them. Once you find them, it's worth the one dollar you pay for each.


I'll keep coming back a few times a month to see what's "new" on the shelves. It's like a siren call that I can't resist, one that leads me to treasure. 



All original writing and art copyright A. Dameron 2000-2010

Quotes about Books

"Where is Human Nature so weak as in the bookstore?" - Henry Ward Beecher, Star Papers


"Any man with a moderate income can afford to buy more books than he can read in a lifetime."- Henry Holt


"There are 10,000 books in my library, and it will keep growing until I die. This has exasperated my daughters, amused my friends, and baffled my accountant. If I had not picked up this habit in the library long ago, I would have more money in the bank today; I would not be richer." -Pete Hamill, "D'Artagnan on 9th Street: A Brooklyn Boy at the Library."


"Early to bed and Early to rise, Work like hell and advertise." -A distorted proverb from an agent.


"I cannot live without books." -Thomas Jefferson


"I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library." -Jorge Luis Borges


"Where books are burned, in the end, people will be burned too." -Heinrich Heine


"An effective minor character is a well-made bundle of ideas, and an effective major character is a well-made bundle of ideas to whom we are asked to pay more attention." --Eric Maisel, "Deep Writing".

Ben Franklin's Epitaph

(1729- he wrote it, but it's not on his gravestone)

The Body

of

Benjamin Franklin, Printer

(Like the cover of an old book,

its contents torn out,

and stript of its letter and gilding,)

Lies food for worms:

Yet the work itself shall not be lost,

for it will (as he beleived) appear once more

In a new

and more beautiful edition,

Corrected and amended

by

The Author

All writing and art copyright A. Dameron 2000-2010

A Bookstore is a Just a Bookstore?

A bookstore is a bookstore, some people claim. We don't hesitate to go to the cathedral of Barnes and Noble or the chapel of Books A Million. Bright lights and wide aisles, books of all shapes, sizes and colors. Shelves of videos, compact discs and Blue Rays, bundles of slick magazines. Classical music and cappuccinos. Sit and stay a while, read a novel while sipping at a Starbucks latte. Clean and convenient, you can find any book, anywhere, in minutes.

Efficiency is good thing in our modern world. It's a comfort to be able to find the latest novel  waiting for us there, to be picked up. Or the next month's issue of "Cosmopolitan" or "Plane and Pilot". When you enter one of these mazes, you think, "Where do I begin?" There are more choices, more decisions, more options, more money to spend.

I enjoy going to the megastores. I also enjoy going to the smaller, independent bookstores. If the megastores are the cathedrals of bookdom, then these shops are shrines, unique stops for the pilgrim on literary quests. When I lived in Charlottesville, Virginia, I loved the various book places near the University of Virginia and on the Downtown Mall. I met a good friend, Barbara, while she worked at the Book Cellar.

As the name implied, it was located in the basement of the Hardware Store Restaurant. I became a regular, talking with Barbara behind the counter. Barbara lived alone with her 9 cats, but she loved books as much as I did.

Other bookstores included "Oakley's Used Book Store" and "Read it Again, Sam". The majority of those books involved Virginia history and geneology, but I could find Stephen King's books among Amy Tan's, Henry Thoreau's with Anne Rice's, all for bargain prices. I found out-of-print and special items that I could never find at a large retailer. The proprietors of these shops knew me by sight and we'd chat about all things while I paid for my treasures.

My favorite one was Heartwood, located in an alley across the University, right across Jefferson Park Avenue. There were narrow aisles with books stacked like soldiers and squeezed into rows on the floor. This made it hard to navigate, but Heartwood smelled like paper and ink. I found a German version of Don Quixote published in 1820 and a collection of Poe tales from 1900. Who knew what you could find?

When I moved to Charlotte, I lamented the lack of independent bookstores. Living in Thomas Jefferson's Village certainly spoiled me, but I didn't waste time finding one. The Used Book Stores at the corner of Plaza and Central is currently high on the favorites list. A huge attraction is the bargain shelves with $1.00 books,

Each little store has its own quaint charm, each has its atmosphere. Some, like Heartwood, smells like ancient tomes. Others convey a folksy charm that puts you at ease. Stay, read a while, no cappuccino required.

All writing and art copyright A. Dameron 2000-2010