Thursday, September 12, 2013

We segued within a few faxes

And so it began. Faxes back and forth, a long-distance correspondence with a woman I'd never met. What began oddly became progressively more odd. The pace of conversation was outrageously slow, and this suited us both - neither of us was in any hurry. But the enormous geographical distance also led us to quickly let down our guard. We segued within a few faxes from innocent flirting to innermost secrets. Within a few days our faxes took on a tone of fondness, then intimacy. I felt as if I were going steady with this woman I'd never met or spoken to.

-- Open by Andre Agassi

Monday, September 9, 2013

BookCrossing: Tuesdays with Morrie

One afternoon in July 2012 I executed the best themed release of all time. The idea came to me during a moment of clarity (those usually occur as I sit cross legged, eating a grilled cheese sandwich) and it took a great deal of planning to pull off. I am immensely proud and have been riding a delicious wave of self-satisfaction ever since. You must now be very curious, and I don't blame you - this buildup of anticipation must be torturous. With your well-being in mind, here's the juice: I released Tuesdays with Morrie on a Tuesday! Yes yes, I know I know. Please calm yourselves and sit back down. We don't have all day.

It was a beautiful summer's day and my walk through the park was very calming, except for the small fact that my heart was beating exceptionally fast, for I knew even then that I was about to perform an extraordinary act that would no doubt alter the course of the universe. Sorry, butterflies. I saw an empty bench ahead of me and I knew what needed to be done. After a slight hesitation (could I really go through with this? am I the right person for this role?) I placed the book on the bench and breathed a huge sigh of relief. What was done was done.

A journal entry came in later that same day:
Just picked up this book on a local park bench while I was out walking with my 11 month old son. Look forward to reading it and sending it on its way!

serving them through glass windows

She tells me that when I was still in the crib, my father hung a mobile of tennis balls above my head and encouraged me to slap at them with a ping-pong paddle he'd taped to my hand. When I was three he gave me a sawed-off racket and told me to hit whatever I wanted. I specialized in salt shakers. I liked serving them through glass windows. I aced the dog. My father never got mad. He got mad about many things, but never about hitting something hard with a racket.

-- Open by Andre Agassi

Sunday, September 1, 2013

BookCrossing: The Telling of Lies

I released a few books in Town Centre Park last summer (now you know what I did then), and had some success with catches. One such release and catch was with The Telling of Lies, which I released next to Lafarge Lake on the Trans Canada Trail. A very important characteristic of this particular catch is that it was my 100th catch from all my wild releases! Woohoo! The release photo is pretty sweet, and I am not biased at all. TToL had been in the wild for a mere five days when I received this exhaustive journal entry on July 11, 2012:
it has been moving

Sunday, May 12, 2013

BookCrossing: Silence Speaks for Love

I'm so behind on these caught-book posts! My BookCrossing activity the past couple of years has been very minimal, which means I haven't released many books, which means I haven't had many catches, which means the trigger to post here about earlier catches doesn't occur, which means the catches for books that happened in June 2012 have yet to be posted! I released Silence Speaks for Love in November 2009 at Coquitlam Centre and a journal entry came in on June 18, 2012:
Found in the return bin of the New Westminster Public Library.