On The Road With Al and Ivy: Blog

I know there are readers in the world, as well as many other good people in it, who are no readers at all,—who find themselves ill at ease, unless they are let into the whole secret from first to last, of every thing which concerns you. - Laurence Sterne (The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy 1759) PART 2: The Mystical Bond Between Women And Cats The mystical bond between women and the feline race was shrouded in mystery until 10432 B.C. when universal literacy via comic books and graphic porn novels made it possible for menkind to collectively ascertain why women were suddenly less willing to worship males as Gods. A few far-sighted males postulated it was because they cheated, used the same socks all week, ate smoked sardines without brushing afterward, fell asleep immediately after sexual congress, engaged in farting contests, picked their toes, gambled family funds, killed each other for sundry reasons, and only hugged each other, but those heretics were quickly relegated to sl...

"I have made a silent compact with myself not to change a line of what I write. I am not interested in perfecting my thoughts, nor my actions." - Henry Miller (Tropic Of Cancer) "But get hold of Tropic of Cancer, get hold of Black Spring and read especially the first hundred pages. They give you an idea of what can still be done, even at this late date, with English prose. In them, English is treated as a spoken language, but spoken without fear..." - George Orwell (Essay: Inside The Whale) I look at Tropic Of Cancer in 2019 and have to think; these days the internet would be eating Henry Miller's flesh, or doing it's best to ban the book without being so uncool as to actually openly proscribe it. Which isn't an indictment of Miller, as the same thing would happen to Jesus or Buddha if they had an online presence. It's a book that's been canonized like an ancient Saint, kept on a virtual shelf and treated as a sacred work that everyone knows is l...

"add Deeds to thy knowledge answerable; add faith,  Add virtue, patience, temperance; add love,  By name to come called charity, the soul  Of all the rest: then wilt thou not be loathe To leave this Paradise, but shalt possess  A Paradise within thee, happier far.—" - Milton (Paradise Lost) I've spent a lot of my leisure time in used bookstores. One of the best was Berger's in Sunnyvale, California, back in the 80s. It was a dusty hole in the wall, owned by Thomas Berger, who spent his days reading classics and theological works, but would stop and ring up sales or handle trades as needed. I saw him use a vacuum cleaner a couple of times too. Like any good used bookstore, it reflected the owner's tastes, and in this case, it was the classics and history at very low prices. That was right up my alley, and my average stay was two hours, often more. My routine was to walk through the aisles and check the new arrivals, which were on the floor in boxes and bags until ...