Weekly Story Sale - June 24, 2021
This month saw Pride month. This month saw Octavia Butler's birthday, Anne Carson's birthday, Che Guevara's birthday, and James Weldon Johnson's birthday. And, where June of 1977 saw Raymond Carver finally quit drinking, June of this year saw people back to the bars and the restaurants and the parties... and the bookstores too, we hope.
For many of us, this month has come in many waves - of celebration and anxiety, grief and heat and reopening. I've been reading more, holding conversations a little bit longer, and wondering whether it's premature to quote Voltaire. “Let us read, and let us dance," he wrote," these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.”
Well, while Voltaire could not have predicted the impacts of COVID-19 or the current state of the American news cycle, it finally feels like his words may ring true once again. After all, it was books that got us through this month and through all the ones before it. Now, I suppose, we're just waiting to dance.
For many of us, this month has come in many waves - of celebration and anxiety, grief and heat and reopening. I've been reading more, holding conversations a little bit longer, and wondering whether it's premature to quote Voltaire. “Let us read, and let us dance," he wrote," these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.”
Well, while Voltaire could not have predicted the impacts of COVID-19 or the current state of the American news cycle, it finally feels like his words may ring true once again. After all, it was books that got us through this month and through all the ones before it. Now, I suppose, we're just waiting to dance.