An arm full of books equals a street full of looks...

After a delightful lunch with a colleague today at one of our favorite haunts here in Athens, I made my way to the third, fourth, and finally fifth floor of the main library. Collecting a variety books that will all (hopefully) be (somewhat) helpful in the ongoing dissertation, I then descended to the line of patrons trying to get their books checked out (side note: I was reminded of what the long lings used to look like at BestBuy and Target during this time of year before the Bushcession hit).

As many of you know, I have a thing for books; I cannot get enough of them. Now I know that this disease paralyzes a number of graduate students early on in their careers and develops into a chronic illness that persists until death; however, my illness began as an undergraduate who preferred to purchase his outside readings rather than fight for them at the university and/or public library. Well, as a graduate student I have had to give up on purchasing every item that I have read or would like to read...I don't have that much space or money right now but am determined to one day catch up. So I retrieved my approximately 26 books from the main library, checked them out, and was faced with a decision of not-so-epic proportions: should I try to find a great friend with office space to stash the books until I can go get my car OR dare to put my life at risk and take the monstrous buses here at UGA OR take it like a woman or man and hike back to my house on south campus? Well, being the scarf-wearing man that I am, I opted for the walk. "Forced into" may be the more accurate descriptors. No friend to be found and I really don't care for those buses, so, off I went with a brave spirit about me, and 7 books in hand, 6 in a bag over the shoulder, and 13 inside a pair of Kroger's plastic bags.

Unlike what you might be thinking, the roughly 1.2 mile (I'm guessing here) trek went rather smoothly: no plastic bag rips or dropped books from the arms. Let me add that it started snowing on the way...I felt like I was the personification of the whole "walked both ways to school, up hill, in the snow..." Well, what peaked my interest, and thus the blog entry, was the looks, stares, and smirks I received from fellow sidewalk-walkers. I passed probably 20 or so people on my way back to my house and almost every one of them (if not all) checked the stack of books and then checked my face as if to be gauging the level of my sanity. By the time I got half the way here, I knew I would blog about this! What is wrong with these people, I pondered, have you never seen someone carrying books in the freezing cold weather? Then it struck me. These people may be startled by the fact that someone actually reads...what a novelty! Someone actually goes to the library, not to buy a coffee or take a gameday piss or try to pick up some woman with the lamo line: hey what cha' readin' that there buuk fer?

You might think that I am being way too bookish/snobbish or perhaps a bit too judgmental of my non-reading, goofish-grinning, sidewalk-walkers. A final example to help prove my point: my last encounter was with a group of three younger gentlemen. One, as he saw me approaching, decided to utter the most brilliant statement to dribble from human lips: "well look at all those books." His compatriots weren't equally remarkable in their assessments. The second of the three commentators, replied, "yeah." Not to be outdone, the third, and most insightful of this motley crew offered me a new expression that I can't wait to try out at my next dinner party: "hey bro, where's your elevator." My elevator? What? What has an elevator got to do with this situation, I wondered. With no real reply that seemed to make sense (what was I going to say, "at home?"), I simply shrugged as best I could and made my way to the house.

Once home, I settled in for a nice cup of white tea after placing my holiday wreath outside while having to control my inner struggle as to whether or not it gives off too much of a bourgeois appearance. It stays, I decided, but tomorrow I'll take an extra bag with me to the library so my excess of books doesn't draw attention or more questions about the location of my elevator.

TCH