Books To Track Down

Just received my very own copy of The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams. Y

It’s a gorgeous book! It’s HUGE! It’s MASSIVE. It will weigh down my book bag, and I already can’t wait to dive right in. Now, I used to have a copy of it, from a second-hand store, I think. And it got lost in all of the moving that I do. I lost track of it. I thought that perhaps it wasn’t in print anymore, not sure … the copy I originally had looked like it had been published shortly after the simultaneous death of Adams and Jefferson on July 4, 1826 (can never write that fact down without feeling a small chill/thrill) – My copy was old, and battered. But alas. I lost it. Between Los Angeles and San Fran and Chicago and New York … I don’t know. It’s in a garage somewhere.

I have a couple of books on a list in my head. These books are all out-of-print or hard to find and I have them on a ‘MUST TRACK DOWN SOMEDAY’ list in my head. The correspondence, though, wasn’t on that list. I guess I just forgot about it for a while or something.

Side note: The MAIN book on that “Must Track Down” list was I Was a Teenage Dwarf, the classic book written in the 1950s by Max Shulman, starring the unnaturally short teenage lady-killer Dobie Gillis. I was on a MISSION to find that book after being kicked out of my high school library while reading it, because my guffaws of laughter were disturbing the peace. That Dwarf book has been out of print for YEARS, but I never forgot how hard it made me laugh, and every time I went into a 2nd hand book store, ANYwhere, I would look for a copy. I searched at flea markets, libraries, periodically I’d go check The Strand … This search went on for years. Literally. Remember, we’re talking pre-eBay years. Finally, after YEARS of this, I told my dad about my never-ending search. He said, casually, “Oh, we have about 10 copies at the library. I’ll send you one.” Duh. Forgot to ask the one person who could actually help me out. A copy of that beloved book arrived in the mail 5 days later, and I read it in my apartment, and laughed JUST as hard as I had when I was 16. I HOWLED. I had to put the book down at times, and just guffaw, waves of hysteria breaking over me … This time I disturbed the peace of my neighbors, not the high school library. To find the book STILL that funny?? Max Shulman, wherever you are, I. Love. You.)

I am still reading American Sphinx and LOVING it. I have re-entered the world of Underworld, after being out of it for a while. I have, for the moment, put down Great Terror because I have the feeling I can’t read that one on the side.