But not like a whore whore, cause I won't go home with just any book. More like a high-class literary call girl. I'll cut the booknerd speech short. I'll just tell you about my Half Price Books shopping trip.
I got these:
Light in August--William Faulkner, 1932.
Gods, Graves, and Scholars--C.W. Ceram, 1951.
The Quest for Meaning--William Cooney, 2000.
Dreaming Southern--Linda Bruckheimer, 1999.
Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates--Tom Robbins, 2000.
Media and Society--Michael O'Shaunghnessy and Jane Stadler, 2005.
Vanishings--Library of Curious and Unusual Facts.
Women in 19th Century Europe--Fiona Macdonald, 1999.
Total Cost: $25.18.
Conversation overhead:
"Hey honey, remember your monkey dream? Here's a book that you can look that up in."
Grunt.
"What 'bout Ringer?"
"There's stuff in thar 'bout dogs, too. Look up 'dog.' Under D."
"Oh, it's alphabetical?"
I pulled out my phone to text this to myself for later retrieval. Next the tanktopped, hairy-backed man said to his wife who was parked in front of the astronomy section, "Here, honey, you wanna summon up some spirits?" I let out a half-giggle when she replied, "No, no thank you." I mean, I was standing right there in the religion section across from her, looking at a reject book called, "What's Right, What's Wrong, What's the Difference?" Then her voice kinda changed, and she went on, "I have enough personal demons in my life..." Uncomfortable, I went to a different section.
Filled with book lust, I returned home, trying to choose where to start when another lover (tv) tempted me with a klru documentary--Secrets of the Dead, Battle for the Bible, about the political and religious bloodshed involved in translating versions of the Bible and the roots of modern day religion. I always like it when themes emerge--the reading of stories, my own faith questions, the value attached to objects and texts, our current political climate in the Middle East and religion's place in war.
1380's--the Roman Catholic Church was England and vice-versa. Rituals and readings were performed mindlessly, as they were performed in an ancient language no one really understood. Attempts to translate, publish, or read the Bible in English was heresy, and punishable by death by fire. Forty years prior the Black Plague had wiped out half the population, so obviously that was an act of God. John Whitcliff began a revolution with his Lollards (aka Mutterers) with his message that people could read the bible themselves and the pope was not in fact the sole authority. His followers continued to pass along the banned English version Whitcliff published even after he died--the English church dug up his body and burned it for heresy.
The rest of the story is filled with rebellion, exile, betrayal, divorce-seeking kings, bloodthirsty queens, attempted compromises between Episcopals, Catholics, and Protestants, new bibles and versions, etc, eventually spreading to the new colonies on our side of the ocean, branching out into the many denominations that exist today. According to the Belief-o-matic, I am New Age or neo-Pagan, but I'm not sure if I understood all the questions 100%.
If you're interested:
