18 July 2014

A beloved book that I lost today

The reason that I titled this post something like "A Book That I Was Forced to Return to the Library Today" is as follows.

On this day, I had to give back a book that I had borrowed from the library, even though I loved the book and would have preferred to keep it. I did this to avoid an overdue charge of thirty-five cents.

Title

After snapping a pic of its spine to reveal the book's name, I placed it in the return slot and waved goodbye.

Self Shot with Book

Knowing that our time together was limited, earlier in the day I took this picture with the book, showing me in the act of contemplating the magic of its pages.

By the way, the above image was difficult to capture - I had to clutch the book in one hand while using the other hand to press the computer's space bar, in order to trigger the webcam to snap the photograph. Moreover, I was barred from looking at the viewfinder to check the image's framing, because I had to keep both eyes on the book. And note that my glasses are dangerously close to slipping off my nose.

Text Sample

Lastly, here is a picture of a single page of the book, showing the opening of a chapter and a bit of text (my favorite part of this small fragment are the lines about America):

English translation by Mark Ford; original text by Raymond Roussel.

 

Additional Info

I feel that I would be remiss if I did not also give a link [HERE] to its place on Amazon, where one can browse the book's insides... and, for those who loathe Amazon, I'll give another link [HERE] to its webpage at Princeton University Press.

More from Bryan Ray