Library Discards

Often the marking of a good book, and a tired one. I was surprised upon looking how few of my books were marked ex libris. Then I noticed how many were missing one of the the end papers. Libraries discard resellers cut off the marked pages to create the appearance of a less used book. What a shame. I'd prefer to know where it's been.

Darker Blues

I'm quoting a quote, but they re-use the passage masterfully in a meaningful place. The book is a collection of biographical essays about the musicians of the northern Mississippi. And in context the place matters as much as the people.

"On the fields, in the forests, in the streets and yards and homes and businesses, and barns, the water left a rising muck. It filled the air with stench, and in the sun it lay baking, and cracking like broken pottery, dung-colored and unvarying to the horizon..."

-Originally from Rising Tide, by John Barry.