Just like sex, reading is an addiction. The first high of a great book sets the standard portrayal of peak reading; it becomes the club classic portrait of goonery litmus test for everything that follows, which naturally never quite…a spring breaker. My mind builds a tolerance; the great book becomes average. So where do you go to bring back that first high? Book, so confusing…my stranded mind craves order; the structure of a list.

Abel is the “interested” shelf; Cain is the “to-be-read” shelf. Like God, I always choose Abel; that’s why both of us got hit by Björk at Bangkok International Airport in 1996. The portrayal is very apt, but at the same time I don’t think Cain has much to offer—though as Satan said, “The mind is its own place, and in itself / Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.” Bumpin' that!

As much as I want to stay with the fiery portrait of the last peak reading, here it is...the great potential promised by the current book, it's hard not to look back, knowing the entrapment of love’s limits and the consequence of doubt. Do you make the lover’s choice or the poet’s? Do you dare to look back, or should we set fire to the portrait of a lady?

I couldn't help but wonder, would you like to keep the portrait, or do you want to double it and give it to the next person? ☔️

i need to ask, how much of the corner do you fold down? is it the same for every book? is it different? what parameters do you try to follow? do you dog ear library books? because i just found the left over crease from what used to be a dog ear'd page in a library book, and the crease is crossing the text. now, maybe i just don't get it, but that feels a little bit like heresy. in a way. if you get what i mean.