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| The books in my guest bathroom |
First Paragraphs
I have a
guest bathroom on the ground floor not far from the kitchen. In it proudly
display four books. They are one on top of the other. All four have influenced
my life for the better. I will put links below to what I have written about
them.
But most
important is the first paragraph of William Gibson’s Neuromancer. I think it is the most famous first paragraph of any
book from that 20th century.
The sky
above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.
Jane Rule’s first
paragraph (part of it):
Writing an
autobiography may be a positive way of taking my own life.
George
Bowering – Canada’s first Poet Laureate writes on the opposite side of my
portrait of him:
Look at the photograph. Look at the
man in the photograph. Well there isn’t one. You are looking at a small
two-dimensional something.
Harold Bloom
in his book halfway through his photograph:
We read not only because we cannot
know enough people, but because friendship is so vulnerable, so likely to
diminish or disappear, overcome by space, time, imperfect sympathies, and all
the sorrows of familial and passional life.
That Bloom
paragraph defines my situation since my Rosemary died 6 years ago. I feel my
family has fragmented and so many of my friends are now dead as I am 84.
On a more
positive bent, last week I went to eat at Nando’s on 41st(opposite
Kerrisdale Cameras) with my daughter. I passed by Hager books and found this Ian
Rankin pocket book that in many ways defines my present life. His Inspecter
Rebus has retired and is no longer a policeman. He is depressed.
A positive
bent? Yes! I been unable to read any books of late. I just stare at the ceiling
with my female cat Niña by my side and I seem to turn off the lights earlier
every evening. Not any more as I am reading at least one chapter of Rankin’s
novel. Today I passed by Hager books and found another Rebus novel.
Yes books
can have a powerful influence.
