How I Blow my Money

I told myself it was going to be a summer of books.

Last week I woke up with that restless feeling. I don't know if I'll ever lose this capacity to make such bad decisions.

So I filled my tank to the $30 mark and hit the turnpike. I drove through Elgin, Lawton, took an Exit at Wichita Falls and went 20 miles West to Archer City. There stands 4 buildings (almost the whole Archer City downtown) of bookstores. Booked Up is Larry McMurtry's (Lonesome Dove, Last Picture Show) book compound. He says in his collction of essays that Archer City has relatively cheap rent for such an endeavor.

I browsed for hours, even sitting at that little table there seeing what Aldous Huxley had to say about D.H. Lawrence. Did you know he lived in New Mexico and had a car he called One-Eyed Susan. Looks like Lady Chaterley's Lover will join the list.

His academy award certificate of nominatino for The Last Picture Show is in the main room as his Dr. Pepper Best Novel by a Customer award, accompanied by a bottle opener on the plaque.

I'm sad to say the guy wasn't there. Not like I would've said anything if he had been. With many antique book stores going out of business, Booked up still stands.

I only made it to two buildings, so I will have to return. One building had a journalism section. The organizing system was pretty all over the place. There's one funny shelf called "Painfully Boring Titles." A book I own The Powers that Be" was on that shelf.

Two touristy couples gave a goshlookatallthesebooks kind of a tour.

I strained and strained and ultimately settled on a first edition, salmon colored Sherwood Anderson. His collection of short stories Horses and Men. One chapter is dedicated to the journalist cum novelist Theo Dreiser. Winesburg, Ohio was a big deal to me my first year of college.

I also got this little cartoon pamphlet about animals killing humans in humorous ways. It was a buck. I won't disclose the price of the Anderson.

Perhaps the best thing about taking a trip like this to visit a regional book mecca is the time it allows you to rock out, enjoy the wind and look at grain and grass blurring by, figuring out what you are going to make of yourself. The wide open blue sky that caused Larry McMurtry's sickness when he tried to live near Virginia, a place without the Western skyline, also engulfs you on that 60 mph road leading to Archer. And with gas pricest through the roof, the roads were rather empty.

The Playlist:

Blood is the New Black by Jabee (Oklahoma rapper, see here: http://www.myspace.com/emceejabee) And look for him on the COVER of next week's Oklahoma Gazette

Fleet Foxes, self-titled (twice)

Bob Dylan (I Want You, Visions of Johanna)

My Morning Jacket- Okonokos (both discs)

Fionn Regan- The End of History

Coldplay- Viva Vida (Or death to all those haters..)

Explosions in the Sky--Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever

Leadbelly-- Ellis Pete, or something like it. He's got some thick syllables sometimes.

Tim Hardin- Reason to Believe