Thursday, July 13, 2006

our aspirations are wrapped up in books

This will be short, as it's late and I need to get some rest for class tomorrow...

...but I just got my copy of Blindness in the mail today from Amazon Marketplace, and I need to get crackin' on reading it for our merry little summer book club. However, as I'm thumbing to the front to put a bookmark on the first page, I notice writing on the inside cover:

"12/24/2003

Tiffany--
This is the best book I've ever read.
I hope you enjoy it too.
Merry Christmas,
Karol"

And suddenly I feel like a trespasser in a book I haven't even started yet. Who are these two--how are they connected? Relatives? Friends? And does Karol know that the best book she's ever read, a personalized gift to Tiffany, is now on ^k^'s desk on a humid July night, when Christmas is so far away as to be almost a meaningless term?

More personally, did I know on December 24, 2003, on the eve of my flight to Las Vegas for a week, that a transaction was occuring somewhere else on the globe that would ultimately wind up putting this book in my hands?

I know Billy Collins said it better, and there are certainly no egg salad stains, but the binding on this book isn't even cracked. Did Tiffany bother to read it at all? Maybe Tiffany and Karol had a tremendous falling out on Boxing Day, or maybe--gasp!--Tiffany HERSELF went blind shortly after the commencement of 2004 and now has to get all of her literature through audiobook, or possibly Braille.

Poor Tiffany. Poor Karol.

But hey--thanks for the glowing review of the book. I'm looking forward to it.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

i'm gonna go out on a limb and predict that you are gonna meet one or both of these ladies at some point in your life. just call it a hunch...

Anonymous said...

in eastern Europe, Carl = Karol
maybe the two were lovers

Anonymous said...

ah...the tragic story of two star crossed lovers on opposite sides of the tracks as it were. a love met with disapproval from both sides of the families yet destined to be only to be tragically snuffed by a series of comedic mishaps leading to the unfortunate death of one...

i smell a hit movie...