Dismantle My Bed

I know a little French. I know a little Italian. I know very, very little Spanish. I don’t speak any of them very well, but I do read French fairly decently. Enough that I could make out parts of a story anyway. One way that I like to keep practiced up, though I must admit I have fallen into some serious disrepair, is by keeping a few French novels on hand. Every now and then, I will take out one of the books, scan through it, and, after several pages of confusion, shout to the heavens, “She wants to make it with the horse!” Then, I’ll reconsider, really hoping that’s not correct.

Though it could be.

The covers of these books tell me that I am reading, without real comprehension, some real bodice-rippers. And you know that one of these days, someone is going to see me reading it, be French-speaking, know the book, and it actually WILL be about a girl and her inappropriate love for her horse. So then they will either think I’m a perve or suddenly find me someone infinitely worth talking to. Of course, it’s all worth it to be reading a book with naked boobies on the cover.

I heart used bookstores. I like being able to go in and get some cool cheap books. I also like being able to sell books that I no longer want at these places.

That is until the other week. We went to a used bookstore with a big box full of books. I was expecting at least $20-$25 for our take.

Ha! Not even close! We got a measly $7 for the entire box. Oh well, $7 is better than nothing I suppose.

I love going into Borders book stores. Not too much of a fan of the Barnes and Noble though. And I do a lot of book buying from Amazon.

I would prefer to buy from indie bookstores though. These big chain bookstores are putting them out of business right and left. But,  I have some debt that needs paid off. That means I need the best prices. And, well, the indie stores just can’t compete with places like Amazon on prices. It is a sad but true reality.

A day off is a day of writing.

Not yours. Your cubicle neighbor or office mate’s.

Now, I don’t know where you work, or what the floor plan looks like. There are some offices that are totally open, no cubicle walls, just desks and a communal suffering. If you work in one of these places, it sucks to be you.

For many of us though, there is some measure of privacy. We simply share an office or have a cubicle, where only one or two people can see what we are doing. If you work in this situation, there may be no better day than the day that your office mate/cubicle neighbor takes off. They leave you in complete privacy, you can write all day long, and the best part? You get paid for it!

Sadly, days off are severely limited, at least in the United States, so you won’t get too many of these free days, but when you do, use them well.

Americans have reading lists, as mentioned earlier. And the Bible tops that list. Man, do I wish I had written the Bible! Think of all of those sales I would be making. Instead, I did not write the Bible. No, I wrote another piece of fiction. And it is not selling nearly as well as the Bible. Even if I did get an order from Amazon last week for some copies.