I'm victorious! I've succeeded in buying a work by Wendell Berry locally at one of the greater institutions of this fine country: the library booksale. The teeth grinding lack of local Berry books is finally abated by a beautiful copy of, Sex, Economy, Freedom and Community in the social sciences section and an hour into the wonderful ordeal of purusing thousands of titles with an exponentially increasing weight hanging from your arms. Three months of looking for one book. Holy mother of all that is good and right. Can there be a worse success rate on record. (Not counting every government program concieved in the last century.) I'm at the point of giving up on this local quest for Berry. Stephen King, Mary Higgins Clark, or Danielle Steele: no problem. Wendell Berry: different story.
That's the problem with Wendell really. Looking for him at a used book bonanza, whether store or sale is like trying to find the rarest of snipes. (A local bird about which I won't tell if you don't know.) The man can't be pinned down or defined. What does he write? Well, he's a poet, essayist, novelist, short story afficionado, and mad farmer. Does that clarify things? Which section would that be in? But, regardless, it makes it that much better to catch a copy of the old poet for a buck under some local brick and mortar. Exhilarating and nerdy. My modus operandi really.
That's the problem with Wendell really. Looking for him at a used book bonanza, whether store or sale is like trying to find the rarest of snipes. (A local bird about which I won't tell if you don't know.) The man can't be pinned down or defined. What does he write? Well, he's a poet, essayist, novelist, short story afficionado, and mad farmer. Does that clarify things? Which section would that be in? But, regardless, it makes it that much better to catch a copy of the old poet for a buck under some local brick and mortar. Exhilarating and nerdy. My modus operandi really.
Re:organization - That's why I organize my books into two categories - fiction and non-fiction. Of course that still makes it fun trying to figure out where to file a book combining the two. I also like the fact that it puts all my sci-fi/fantasy books right next to the "literary" books 'cause you know one of those is automatically better than the other. I'll leave it to you to figure out which.
ReplyDeleteAh! A familiar exhilarating experience! I've found a couple of Berry books at library sales -- one in Indiana: Life is a Miracle (bag for $1 day), and one in Illinois: A World Lost. Have to love those sales. A few good finds make the long searches and the disappointments in the dollar bag worthwhile.
ReplyDelete