As you're doing your last minute Christmas shopping, remember that books make excellent gifts. In my opinion, they make the best gifts. But that's just me.
Anyway, if you agree, don't forget to support your local bookstore. Some communities are lucky enough to still have one, such as From My Shelf Books in Wellsboro, PA. You get more personalized service than at a big corporate chain bookstore, and chances are you can find a place to park. Just try going to the Barnes & Noble at The Marketplace at Augusta (Maine) today. One way in. One way out. Thousands of shoppers. Good luck. Last Christmas Eve I got stuck in a line of traffic that didn't move for half an hour. I know that sounds minimal for you city dwellers, but in Maine that's a long wait.
Oh, if you stop at From My Shelf Books, you can pick up a signed copy of The Beat Handbook. If you wish.
But what's all the above got to do with Jack Kerouac? He was an author, for heaven's sakes.
However, for you Kerouac-obsessed readers, here's a Christmas Eve quote from p. 135 of The Dharma Bums (1976):
The following night was Christmas Eve which I spent with a bottle of wine before the TV enjoying the shows and the midnight mass from Saint Patrick's Cathedral in New York with bishops ministering, and doctrines glistering, and congregations, the priests in their lacy snow vestments before great official altars not half as great as my straw mat beneath a little pine tree I figured.
Merry Christmas Eve!
3 comments:
Ah, my favorite Kerouac novel, and that sentiment within, so perfectly simple. Jack was, is, and always will be the truth.
A fair amount of my Christmas shopping was done at City Lights. And, that's how I plan on spending my Christmas Even night as well.
TDB is my favorite Kerouac novel, too. And some day I plan to make a pilgrimage to City Lights.
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