Local Borders Closes

Many of you probably know that Borders is closing a lot of its stores. No bailout for the bookstores, I guess. One store that’s closing is the store in Metairie, Louisiana where I’ve bought most of my Bricks & Mortar books over the last decade. It’s also the store where my Wordsmiths Writing Group meets, so we are for the moment a group without a home. Anyway, Borders is having a going out of business sale and I naturally stopped by last night to pick over the carcass. I’m enough of a scavenger that way, although I will weep while cracking the bones for their marrow. A lot of other folks had the same idea I did. Too bad business couldn’t have been that good for them before bankruptcy.

I bought some $300 dollars worth of books, mostly nonfiction, with about 75% of it being related to the Darwin project I’m working on. These include books by Stephen Hawking and Richard Dawkins on the anti-creationism side, a book on the cool new area of evolutionary theory called “Evo-Devo,” and several books by religious thinkers who are trying to resist the Fundamentalists’ attempt to hijack the Bible and Christianity for their own ends. A lot of good reading ahead of me.

I did buy some just-for-fun books. I picked up three of the “Chuck Norris” is the man books by Ian Spector, including one entitled Chuck Norris vs. Mr. T. Some light, quick reading. I only bought one novel, Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry, which I’ve been intending to get for a good while. I also bought a Batman graphic novel, and books on Dave Mustaine, Motley Crue, and AC/DC.

I do not need more books to read. But that has never stopped me before. A couple of months back I bought a new bookshelf that I intended just to hold 1) my highest ranked TBR pile, and 2) unread books by friends of mine. I’d hoped to keep that shelf under 50 books but it’s over 200 already, not counting the ones I’ll be adding to it today.

I have to face it, I suppose. I just can’t stop. My name is Charles, and I’m a Bookaholic.
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When Death Comes for Me

Feel like rocking tonight. Listening to old Black Sabbath. “Sweet Leaf.” “Snow Blind.” “The Warning.” If there’s a soundtrack to evil, Black Sabbath wrote it.

Then I open a more modern Hell for some Black Label Society. “Suicide Messiah.” Or I listen to a little cultural commentary with Marilyn Manson’s “The New Shit” and The Crue’s “Find Myself.” Wind it up with a little “I am the Bullgod” with Kid Rock. After, I slow it down with “Space Lord” by Monster Magnet and then "Screaming in the Night" by Krokus.

Makes me want to ride a pale horse with the Wild Hunt, to feel the scrape of briars across my leathers while the horns skirl and reap the silence.

In my dreams sometimes I run the dark. My teeth are long. Crimson at the roots. At campfire’s edge, my eyes gleam wicked yellow. My pupils are dilated. And I am:

WATCHING

When death comes for me
I’ll wait in the black light
Armed to the teeth
With blade and bullet

Standing in the rain
The wine bite of life
Bloody on my tongue
Eyes smoking ready

When death comes for me
I’ll be fueled for fire
I’ll throw him a red kiss
But it won’t be sweet

Standing under eclipsed sun
With the wink of steel
Hiding cold in my fists
Smiling only with my mouth

When death comes for me
His angel wings spread dark
He’ll find a machine rusted
But sharp edged and poison

Standing in a blank wind
A ghost with scars for eyes
With ruins for memories
He’ll find me...watching

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