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Serendipity
Jan. 26th, 2012 07:54 amI went to Starbucks last night because I had Helene Hanff's 84 Charing Cross Road and wanted to read it in a congenial setting.
What a peculiar book it is: less than a hundred pages of correspondence between an American writer and the London bookseller who keeps her in second-hand books not long after World War II. It's charming, but so slim and aimless that it's strange that anyone ever published it.
Starbucks was lovely. Near the end of the evening one of the baristas gave me one of their newest cake pops: dark chocolate raspberry truffle, rich as a flourless chocolate cake, and with tart red raspberry sugar on top.
***
One of the perks of working at a used bookstore is that you see lots of books - and not just see them, but handle them, pick up and look at lots of books that your eyes would normally just skate over.
That’s how I ended up reading Playing for Pizza, John Grisham’s tale of a failed NFL quarterback who ends up playing for an American football club team in Parma, Italy.
John Grisham. American football. These are not generally my things.
But it was about Italy so in the spirit of adventure I read it, and actually it was pleasant. I’ve been sick for the last week; a light fast read was about my speed. I couldn’t follow the football games, but it was generally clear when the exciting moments occurred.
And who can ask more of a book than that it makes you pine for prosciutto?
What a peculiar book it is: less than a hundred pages of correspondence between an American writer and the London bookseller who keeps her in second-hand books not long after World War II. It's charming, but so slim and aimless that it's strange that anyone ever published it.
Starbucks was lovely. Near the end of the evening one of the baristas gave me one of their newest cake pops: dark chocolate raspberry truffle, rich as a flourless chocolate cake, and with tart red raspberry sugar on top.
***
One of the perks of working at a used bookstore is that you see lots of books - and not just see them, but handle them, pick up and look at lots of books that your eyes would normally just skate over.
That’s how I ended up reading Playing for Pizza, John Grisham’s tale of a failed NFL quarterback who ends up playing for an American football club team in Parma, Italy.
John Grisham. American football. These are not generally my things.
But it was about Italy so in the spirit of adventure I read it, and actually it was pleasant. I’ve been sick for the last week; a light fast read was about my speed. I couldn’t follow the football games, but it was generally clear when the exciting moments occurred.
And who can ask more of a book than that it makes you pine for prosciutto?
