Thought for Today ~

With the upheaval of moving the bookshop the last two weeks, an essay titled "Unpacking My Library" naturally caught my eye. Add a few paint rags ~ and the following by Walter Benjamin describes the bookshop.

"I am unpacking my library. Yes, I am. The books are not yet on the shelves, not yet touched by the mild boredom of order. I cannot march up and down their ranks to pass them in review before a friendly audience. You need not fear any of that. Instead, I must ask you to join me in the disorder of crates that have been wrenched open, the air saturated with the dust of wood, the floor covered with torn paper, to join me among piles of volumes that are seeing daylight again after two years of darkness, so that you may be ready to share with me a bit of the mood ~ it is certainly not an elegiac mood but, rather, one of anticipation ~ which these books arouse in a genuine collector."

A Passion for Books edited by Harold Rabinowitz & Rob Kaplan,
Three Rivers Press, 1999