John Puchniak’s is a bookstore owner with an obsession about books. Turns out he collected so many that his home was deemed a fire hazard and condemned.
Geeklawyer is a bit of a book nut too. Though with his cupboard apartment he can’t have too many. So yea, take his law books if you must.
but if you want his Alexandrian library of vintage porn mags you’d better bring 5 fucking huge well armed ninjas. Because it’s going to kick off.
And he doesn’t mean ‘maybe’.
That phrase...
Fire hazard? That’s stoopid. Lots of things are fire hazards. Cheap sofas, sleepy smokers, old toasters, mischievous children. What happened to all his books?
One can only hope they were put in storage for later recovery. Anything eles would make one cry.
You can’t put down a sick book, can you? Er, well, I don’t mean 120 Days of Sodom of course - rather a book that nasally trained librarians have detected to be in bad condition. (Yes, this a library-geek joke that only Geeklawyer and lo-fi will get - don’t ask)
Have you read that 120 days, I couldn’t finish it.
I would only put a sick book down if it was a david irving, then I think you’d probably doing it a favour. In all other cases I would isolate it. This doesn’t work so well in Wales.
I confess I’ve never read David Irving - tho’ I suppose I ought - he seems like a Nazi twat. Then again, as a reflexive hate figure I should approach him neutrally rather than pre-judge and I doubt if he is stupid.
As for 120 Days of Sodom - a friendly librarian lent it to me after sneaking it out of a restricted section of our county library - I had no idea such a thing existed in Home Countyshire. My reaction was fascinated horror. Yes I did read it all. Above all was my surprise at how poorly crafted it was. I am no author but I really really believe I could do better. It was like the scribblings of a deranged teenager, which I could forgive; but the violence and torture wasn’t even clever or imaginative. It was just unpleasant: snipping fingers off little children with pliers for sexual fun, dipping people in barrels of shit etc. etc. bleeergh.
I think I probably got to the barrel of shit part and reshelved. Bataille/Trocchi are about as much as I can stomach on the dirty books front. I’m sure to get flamed for reducing the great Bataille to a dirty book merchant. But hey ho.
Our own Holden Oliver, from Rittenhouse Square, Philly, and a snob, said he was not surprised: “One of 5 or 6 people in Pennsylvania (all in eastern part of state) who loves books–and he’s considered deranged and a criminal.”
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, this Oliver Holden fella is odd. Anyone who thinks Ruthie is ’sultry’ is flying with one engine on fire. Why on earth you employ him is beyond me - good lawyer or not. I imagine he has eyes that are a little to close together? A criminal type I’d guess.
Possibly he’s an imposter & the real Oliver Holden is lying dead in a shallow grave in New England? You vetted him - right?
He may be right on this - but it’s luck.
True, I just dug Oliver up in Nantucket when I was there last year. But he’s alive, usually. In US, Mayflower stock and white trash/criminal element are very close in DNA–you are right about that, too. Finally, Oliver is no lady killer. Homely guy–with family money, we think. He thinks Maggie Thatcher was a robo-babe. So Ruthie is a godess. Odd guy.
Dan! When do I get to finally meet you and check the colour of your Amex card?
Schedule through September 5: Alaska, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Monterey, DC. Card is special zebra issue. You still going to MO?
Good goddamit what is this? I kicked Ruthie off the blog for using it to pick up men & now she’s still friggin’ doing it.
Are all women in London THAT broke?? Kind of thought that Ruthie would buy me something–or at least rent me out like the Kent and Suffolk women do…$500 an hour is a deal. And I will throw in my friend Ohio Big Jack for free.
It’s not even as if this dude has a lot of books. I know people with five times that at least.