A peculiar phenomenon follows me when I walk into a book store: Books speak to me. I'm not schizo. I don't literally hear words such as, "You hoo, here I am." On the other hand, I might as well, since the end result is the same: I buy them. Could you resist a book that spoke to you?
I am magnetically drawn to certain volumes and can't explain why. When this happens, I simply know to buy. Such was the case recently at one of my favorite independent bookstores, Warwick's while I was in La Jolla, California. For synergistic reasons that became clear to me later, The Ghost Map, a book I'd never heard of nor expected to have any interest in, was the one that yelped at me. The choice was oddly prescient considering current events as well as an unexpected encounter on the plane to Southern California.
You see, The Ghost Map is all about the great cholera epidemic of London in 1854, and the day I bought it was the day Swine Flu jumped across the border into the United States and declared a pandemic - only when I handed my credit card to the clerk, I didn't know any of that news.


Recent Comments