February 11, 2008 -- Monday evening

At Dogeared Books at 19th and Valencia.

I was late for my writers group, but I had to stop. I love seeing people reading while working at bookstores. Of all the books that surround them they're reading that one.


The truth of the matter was, though, that the guy with the plaid shirt sleeve was pricing trade-in books for shelving and had recommended that his colleague read a poem. ...he was actually working. Sort of. Another bookseller once told me that it's a myth that booksellers have time to read at work. Maybe he's right. I've only been able to take about 3 pictures of booksellers reading.

Here's the poem. It's short.

53:
May my heart always be open to little
birds who are the secrets of living
whatever they sing is better than to know
and if men should not hear them men are old
...here's the rest of it.

Short, but too long to type.

Something good he's read recently--By Night in Chile, by Roberto Bolaño. What he's excited about reading next--That Awful Mess on Via Merulana, by Carlo Emilio Gadda, published by the NY Review of Books, which, he said, has been publishing lots of good mid-century mystery novels.