A lot of people ask about things that make me happy, or if I am happy, or whatever. In an effort to illustrate one such thing, here's a little story for you all.

There's a used book store called the Book Barn, in Latham, NY. It's a great little place; it has an active and knowledgeable owner, who's very friendly and'll do things like wander off into the shelves to find books for you if you call him up during the day. They have a huge selection of widely varied books, including a comics section. I got a book here for my mother's birthday - an old copy of "The Girl Scout Story", or something like that... But I digress. One of the things they have is a big hutch in the back, which is what I'd descibe as "the old books section" - the newest book on the shelf is probably 30 years old, and many are much older.

In 2010 (January, I think? I can check when I get home if you care), I stopped by. From this shelf, I found a 1917 printing of the 1914 publication "Sword Blades and Poppy Seeds", a collection of poetry and prose by Amy Lowell. It's a little hard-cover book, bound in green and with rough page edges, obviously aging. I bought it for $8.10 (including tax).

I then took my new book, and went next door, to Roman Pizza. There, I bought a slice of pizza and a soda for $2.50, sat down, at dinner, and read poems by a woman I'd never heard of before that day. And that? That was a good day.

As an aside, the book in question is available on Google Books:

http://books.google.com/books?id=L6IqAAAAMAAJ&dq=Amy%20Lowell%20sword%20blades&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false