Comments on My First Day on the Job

Be careful of the urinals and water fountains there.

SHOW US YOUR TITS!

Congrats, Paul!

Just a note--I worked for Borders back in the day when they were still owned by the Borders brothers and a champion independent bookseller. We clerks were given a book allowance (based on salary) to spend each month plus a discount. It's a wonder I ever made $ there. Ours was only the second Borders (Novi, MI), and had a vaulted ceiling painted in a cloudscape. When the then current CEO retired (who I believe was a former philosophy prof), our new CEO--recently of Pepperidge Farm--looked at the our tranquil ceiling and said, "That has got to go." And so began the end...

Could have been worse. Could have been a Kaypro...

Good on ya!

Congrats. I've had fun reading your book reviews over the past months, and I think this could be fun. Although I have to say I've noticed a disturbing habit you've got of discussing second- and third- rate writing (ie. your reviews of Whitley Stieber and Harold Robbins, among others.) Do us literary types a favor and follow your own advice via Zadie Smith: try to ignore the abundance of crap writing out there, and focus on the few jewels.

Aw, you're so cute!

Wow.  I remember looking at C64's with envy--the high resolution video, blazing fast floppy drives, and the whopping 64 kilobytes of RAM.

My computer was a Commodore Vic 20.

i'm with nipper. show us your goddamned tits!

p.s. happy v-day!

Four boxes of tea? Bitch please, I've got at least six on hand at all times.

I disagree with Gurldoggie at @6. Please do write about second- and third-rate writers, and about zines and love notes found on the ground and typewriter manuals and the backs of cereal boxes. They probably tell us more about the state of the world than Great Literature, especially because they are more ephemeral.

I forgot to say, congratulations!

Also, I agree with Ramdu @11.  And Cath's story @3 is really heartbreaking.

Congrats, PC.

Books (and reading) are on their way to becoming an elitist activity like opera and Broadway with new hardback fiction/non-fiction starting at $35. One starts to see the allure of chain and online stores.

And I really like hardbacks. Paperbacks just don't stand the test of time. They're cheaper if you have patience, but they eventually fall apart leaving you with nothing but a memory.

So, I limit myself to the used stores now and the library.

Please don't do book reviews on love notes and other shitty ephemera you find on the bus, Paul, unless you're reviewing a published book featuring that shitty ephemera. I beg of you -- review actual books!! BE THAT GUY!! CHALLENGE THE TIDES OF MEDIOCRITY! etc

I'm excited for your work -- how cool of the Stranger to hire a book editor. Really.