tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9098646853427637031.post2827035349345889187..comments2022-12-26T21:03:03.295-05:00Comments on First Line: Posing as a Famous Writer is Easier Than You Thinkfirstlinefictionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07791334570848415998noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9098646853427637031.post-84979610239131461472010-02-15T20:13:48.935-05:002010-02-15T20:13:48.935-05:00I have criteria for judging bookstores as well, bu...I have criteria for judging bookstores as well, but not nearly as organized as yours. Though your story did give me a flashback to when I was a little kid I had this madcap way of judging dictionaries - if the dictionary had the word "kaleidoscope", it passed my test and was deemed good. But otherwise it flunked (and clearly whoever was responsible for compiling this sad excuse for a dictionary was not a Beatles fan). I have no idea where I got this from - I was an odd kid. And I grew up in the sort of place that found words like kaleidoscope deeply suspicious and tried to keep them out of the hands of children.firstlinefictionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07791334570848415998noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9098646853427637031.post-37789364653223481872010-02-10T01:14:04.595-05:002010-02-10T01:14:04.595-05:00Ha! I love this!
On a related note, I sometimes ...Ha! I love this!<br /><br />On a related note, I sometimes have to fight the urge to take a book to the sales desk and tell people, "I know this author." Because that would make me truly pathetic. <br /><br />I do confess, though, that there are a few authors through whose work I judge every bookstore and library I drop into. If I have the time, I browse the shelves or the catalogue for their work, and if the library or bookstore has the book, they pass. It's a pretty absurd thing to do, but I've had some fun with it. It's amazing sometimes where things turn up. One of my first writing mentors, I found a very early and out-of-print copy of his poetry (which didn't have a large press run to begin with) sitting on the shelf in a little used book store several hours north of where he lived. I bought the book. The guy I wrote my masters thesis on, I actually photograph copies of his books on particularly foreign shelves. I recently came across an early reprint (and a British edition, at that) of his first book, a collection of short stories, on the shelf in a little mall bookstore here in Abu Dhabi, which is awfully far afield from his hometown in southern Alabama or his current home in Oxford, MS. And sure enough, I borrowed my wife's camera phone and snapped a pic of it. And then I bought it.<br /><br />Maybe I should have claimed to be him. :)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com