Sitting in the movie theatre waiting for Johnny Depp to appear as Barnabas Collins, various trailers were screeching across the screen. Violent one and all, nothing new there. But when the familiar figure of our most beloved president appeared, I was pulled in–for about 30 seconds. Because after identifying the protagonist, the 16th president known … Read more
Or, why am others and I like me, obsessed with books? Yesterday I think I startled a friend with my guttural reaction to her having ripped apart some old used children’s books we had found together for a project we are jointly working on. She is not careless or indifferent to the written word. On the … Read more
I wasn’t looking *at* anything, I was looking *for* a book. A children’s book that I had vague, but warm memories from owning back in my ancient youth. Weird how as you age, memories of childhood pop up randomly. If they pop up a great deal, and your short term memory is gone, man, that … Read more
There is no place to buy new books anywhere within my radius, and I don’t live in Timbuktu. I live right outside a major city, suburbs with millions of people, and there are practically no bookstores. Three B&N’s are hanging on, but who knows if they will disappear the way the huge double decker one … Read more
by Jas Faulkner It was the mid-eighties and I was wandering through the stacks of the old tower library at Memphis State University with a friend when she first pointed him out to me. He was hanging out at the end of a shelf and we couldn’t help but notice as the shaft of hot Delta … Read more
Nancy Drew, a familiar name even to those who have never opened a juvenile mystery. The original books have been edited, altered, modernized and celebrated in film and TV. Even today there are contemporary stories featuring the teenager and her two girl friends, Bess and George. But if you are like most, you’ve never heard … Read more
In the mid 2000’s, I had a website where I sold vintage illustration jewelry. For each category I wrote a description. Within the Girl Sleuths subject was a sub category of just Nancy Drew pins. Instead of describing the dust jacket art, I decided to write a little ditty using Nancy and her entourage for … Read more
I mean, how do they find the time, the solitude, the quiet? Do they have little cells hidden behind walls only accessible by pulling the candlestick on the mantle for a door to slide open? Or, do they banish family to outer Mongolia during the long hours typing away? I know the now famous story … Read more
