Read on to learn the Strange Preferences and Bent Attitudes of an amateur librarian . . .lurid! shocking! detailed!
True Confession no. 1: Withstanding the Wiles of Eve!
I have been at considerable pains to avoid reading Milton's Paradise Lost my whole, entire, life.
I have been at considerable pains to avoid reading Milton's Paradise Lost my whole, entire, life.
True Confession no. 2: The Matchmaker from Hell!
And aren't they All? But I can never get very far into Jane Austen's Emma before I get embarrassed for her character's meddlesome snobbery and put the book down.
Confession no. 3. Gave Free Love--Got Searing Contempt!
Some hippie and beat authors are fantastic, but I despise Jack Kerouac. He lived on other people's hospitality and casually insulted them in his books.
Confession no. 4. Studly General Blackmailed!
One prize in my library is a two-volume set written by Harriette Wilson, the mistress of (among others) Arthur Wellesley, future Duke of Wellington. From this diary, you wonder how British government ever got out of the brothels and duelling fields long enough to fund a war against Napoleonic France.
Those clients that survived into old age were then blackmailed by Harriette for specific sums, depending on the nature and longevity of their relationship. If they paid up, she left them out of the memoir. (And still two volumes.) Wellington's wrote a very short letter in reply that said "Publish and be damned."
Confession no. 5. True Love, But With Hundreds!
Poems I like I write out in longhand, in a leather-bound book I picked up on sale for two whole dollars. Writing them out in longhand helps me understand how they were crafted.
I have done this twice in my lifetime. The first book wore out after a good twenty years of consultation. Very few of the poems from the first book were left behind for the second one. I am their very true lover. But we are not exclusive . . . anybody else can love them too.
Don't forget . . . True Confessions can be found in your local library!
And aren't they All? But I can never get very far into Jane Austen's Emma before I get embarrassed for her character's meddlesome snobbery and put the book down.
Confession no. 3. Gave Free Love--Got Searing Contempt!
Some hippie and beat authors are fantastic, but I despise Jack Kerouac. He lived on other people's hospitality and casually insulted them in his books.
Confession no. 4. Studly General Blackmailed!
One prize in my library is a two-volume set written by Harriette Wilson, the mistress of (among others) Arthur Wellesley, future Duke of Wellington. From this diary, you wonder how British government ever got out of the brothels and duelling fields long enough to fund a war against Napoleonic France.
Those clients that survived into old age were then blackmailed by Harriette for specific sums, depending on the nature and longevity of their relationship. If they paid up, she left them out of the memoir. (And still two volumes.) Wellington's wrote a very short letter in reply that said "Publish and be damned."
Confession no. 5. True Love, But With Hundreds!
Poems I like I write out in longhand, in a leather-bound book I picked up on sale for two whole dollars. Writing them out in longhand helps me understand how they were crafted.
I have done this twice in my lifetime. The first book wore out after a good twenty years of consultation. Very few of the poems from the first book were left behind for the second one. I am their very true lover. But we are not exclusive . . . anybody else can love them too.
Don't forget . . . True Confessions can be found in your local library!
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