Category Archives: Let There Be Lists

Friday Leftovers: 36 Reasons Why We Will Miss Bookstores

From Buzz Feed. So worthy of a reblog:

1. They are hilariously passive-aggressive.

 They are hilariously passive-aggressive.

2.

A sign from the Red Emma’s bookstore & coffee shop in Baltimore.

3.

“If you are struggling and have no idea what to buy those loved ones, do like so many other fine and upstanding women by visiting the Franklin & Wolfe Variety Store and engage in a stimulating exchange of knowledge with the throngs of folk looking over our fine store!! Especially examine our fine school supplies, as well as games! Our shelves are also continuously filled with special books and curios which have been stocked for the delight of all your many children!

See proprietor for detailed information about why it is always important to read between the lines.”

4.

Via: celebdu

5. They are literal-minded.

They are literal-minded.

6.

7.

Via: bloomie
8.

9. They have an endearingly idiosyncratic way of classifying things.

They have an endearingly idiosyncratic way of classifying things.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

16. They are (sometimes painfully) honest.

They are (sometimes painfully) honest.

17.

18.

19. They give great life advice.

They give great life advice.

20.

Seen at Lorem Ipsum Books in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Via: jspad
21.

Via: deecapp

22. They are practical.

They are practical.

23.

Elliott Bay Book Company, Seattle.

27. They are, occasionally, vindictive.

They are, occasionally, vindictive.

28.

Via: stenun
29.

30. They are (sometimes overly) familiar with the greats.

They are (sometimes overly) familiar with the greats.

31. They have a keen sense of irony.

They have a keen sense of irony.

Found written on a used bookstore’s copy of Slaughterhouse 5.

32.

33. And an eye for the big picture.

And an eye for the big picture.

34. They delight in the perverse.

They delight in the perverse.

35. Often, they are quietly wonderful.

Often, they are quietly wonderful.

36. And they will not go quietly into this good night.

And they will not go quietly into this good night.

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“Somewhere deep within the marrow of our marrow, we were the same.” ~ Kamila Shamsie, from Kartography

Pablo Neruda sonnet xvii

                     

“y nadie puede, nadie puede evadir los pasos
del corazón que corre callado y carnicero”
(and no one — no one — can escape the heart’s progress
as it runs, silent and carnivorous.) ~ Pablo Neruda, from Sonnet LXXI (71), trans. Stephen Tapscott

Paris JLI Images telegraph co uk

Happy Anniversary, my love. One day, we will see Paris and all of the other places on our list.

Music by Elton John, “Love Song”

                   

If You Forget Me

I want you to know
one thing.

You know how this is:
if I look
at the crystal moon, at the red branch
of the slow autumn at my window,
if I touch
near the fire
the impalpable ash
or the wrinkled body of the log,
everything carries me to you,
as if everything that exists,
aromas, light, metals,
were little boats
that sail
toward those isles of yours that wait for me.

Well, now,
if little by little you stop loving me
I shall stop loving you little by little.

If suddenly
you forget me
do not look for me,
for I shall already have forgotten you.

If you think it long and mad,
the wind of banners
that passes through my life,
and you decide
to leave me at the shore
of the heart where I have roots,
remember
that on that day,
at that hour,
I shall lift my arms
and my roots will set off
to seek another land.

But
if each day,
each hour,
you feel that you are destined for me
with implacable sweetness,
if each day a flower
climbs up to your lips to seek me,
ah my love, ah my own,
in me all that fire is repeated,
in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,
my love feeds on your love, beloved,
and as long as you live it will be in your arms
without leaving mine.

~ Pablo Neruda

“What I say is, a town isn’t a town without a bookstore. It may call itself a town, but unless it’s got a bookstore it knows it’s not fooling a soul.” ~ Neil Gaiman

I want to go here:

Librairie Ptyx, Belgium

                   

Music by Belgian singer Laura Fabian with Maurane, “Tu Es Mon Autre”

                   

And Yet the Books

And yet the books will be there on the shelves, separate beings,
That appeared once, still wet
As shining chestnuts under a tree in autumn,
And, touched, coddled, began to live
In spite of fires on the horizon, castles blown up,
Tribes on the march, planets in motion.
“We are,” they said, even as their pages
Were being torn out, or a buzzing flame
Licked away their letters. So much more durable
Than we are, whose frail warmth
Cools down with memory, disperses, perishes.
I imagine the earth when I am no more:
Nothing happens, no loss, it’s still a strange pageant,
Women’s dresses, dewy lilacs, a song in the valley.
Yet the books will be there on the shelves, well born,
Derived from people, but also from radiance, heights.

~ Czeslaw Milosz