There's been an odd confluence of Gore Vidal going on with me right now. I've gotten into three conversations about him this week, so I thought maybe now would be a good time to bring this up.
You may recall that when I went to the psych ward the previous occupant of my room had left behind several books, and I'd picked up Empire by Gore Vidal. I was hooked immediately and went on to get the rest of his Narratives of the Empire series, and that sent me off looking for the rest of his work.
After having read quite a bit, I think Vidal is a fascinating author, and I very much enjoy his style. When I saw that he'd written an autobiography, I knew I had to get it. But when it comes to older books these days, I'm loath to get them the new way. It's so easy to go on Amazon or some such site to get them, and there's none of the thrill of the hunt. So a while back I decided I was going to find Palimpsest the old fashioned way: by hanging out in bookstores.
After a couple of years of searching, my efforts were finally rewarded last Thursday. I found it at the Half Price Books in Bloomingdale on Army Trail. And yes, I did feel that rush of success after a long search. I'd forgotten what that was like. It reminded me of the lengths I used to go to in getting rare movies back in the VHS era. Anyone else do that? Remember going through catalogs looking for your prize? Those weren't professionally printed back then. They were fucking mimeographed. Do you remember that shit?
The universe further rewarded me by putting another book next to Palimpsest.
I didn't know that his memoirs continued into another book, so now I have that one, too. To quote Denny Crane from Boston Legal, "Already my penis feels bigger."
No comments:
Post a Comment