Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Floating and Reading

You ever feel like the world is flying by, you are in a big rush, and then you see some beautiful creature whose mere presence slows everything down and you are suddenly in slow motion... walking in a haze... floating? Until at some point the world just pops back into focus, but you are left with this uncanny sensation that it is somehow different now.

Woke up 'bout 4:00AM this morning. Couldn't fall back asleep after that. So I listened to some music, read a little, and then picked up a pen and notebook and just started scribbling thoughts. Maybe I'll post some of them here later.

Noticed a bunch of books were missing from my room. I asked my flatmates if they had seen them, and turned up a handful of books they had borrowed. That's cool, I don't mind if guys borrow books. On the contrary, I feel like I'm helping to stave off stupidity; I prefer living with people who are literate. But most of the books never turned up. Which makes me wonder if we have book snatchers invading our apartment. I hear this is not uncommon in ultra-orthodox areas. It's like the Mind Police or the Firemen: They try to censor everyone's reading material. In fact, my landlord has commented in the past on my library ("I heard there are students in this apartment with books. I don't want any books here. I know you are one of the troublemakers from ----.") and I begin to suspect...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wherever you will live there will always be rules. If you are living in an apartment where not everyone will feel comfortable with your reading material, you can keep those books in a private place. Brianna has stuff that I don't feel comfortable with, but as long as it is in her room and out of sight it's okay. It must be hard for you not to have your own space. Especially because of your sexual preferences. good luck!

Rivky said...

maybe you have book snatchers, but chances are that since books always disapear, they just disapeared. they show up pesach time or when you go looking for that article from 3 years ago's hamodia magazine.
the only way to make sure you keep the same # of books that you started with is to have a sign out and be makpid on it. otherwise your lucky that you found so many of them

Teddy Douglas said...

Thanks trixie and anonymous for the advice. I hope the missing books turn up. In the meantime, I went out and bought a few new ones. I have always been careful not to bring in anything too abjectionable, but was can you do if they take offense at Shakespeare? I bought Reading Lolita in Tehran, thought it apropos, considering Lolita has disappeared. Maybe I'll write Reading Lolita in J-lem.