Visions of Books from Deep in the Heart of New Mexico
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Now I am deep in the heart of New Mexico, in the snow—lots of snow. It’s 18 degrees, so energizing after the gray-green 85 degree Christmas we just wrapped. Fourteen hours in the car provided lots of time to catch up on real reading—not just the slush I slog through to reach my desk every day.
So many things to read when you take a break from the office. As miles and miles of Texas whizzed by, I read a great articles in the Fortune Small Business Journal that told me that it is OK to be anxious in these times. You have to love that insight. But it went on to say that anxiety doesn’t need to be a freezing, incapacitating feeling that cries to be Xanaxed away, rather, it can be a freeing creative force, helping us to make positive business decisions. So, as New Year’s draws nigh, I make Resolution Number One: Embrace Anxiety.
I read a couple of other magazines—now this is a struggling industry that I hope never goes under--including the Real Simple lists for January issue. Wisdom gained there: I will never be organized in a real simple way, but it’s pretty to think so. Utne Reader, Bazaar, Texas Monthly, these offerings didn’t even get me even to Roswell, so I dove into Sarah Bird’s latest How Perfect Is That? which has been sitting at the foot of my bed, longing to be read since it came out this summer, but spurned for the siren songs of Work . Wondering who these socialite Texans are in real life, and wondering if Sarah is for or against Becca Cason Thrash, kept me occupied until we finally did make it to Roswell and I was distracted by a street light decorated like an alien with a Santa hat. Now that’s inspirational.
After drinking some hot green tea across from a snappy man in red sequined Chucks at the Starbucks, which was hopping and showing no signs of recession, I had to drive. Full of Zen tea and words, edited and published in the old ways, I watched the beautiful sunset playing across the windswept barren land that rolled on endlessly with no cell service. Our ipod only plays in the car from a squeaky tape that drives me crazy, so without even my usual Jimmy Dale Gilmore to distract me, I had plenty of time for reflection.
Here’s what I decided. People who work in the book business should never get too busy to read books. Real books, with covers and pages, printed by great printers like Asia Pacific who send such nice chocolates for the holidays. Kindles are probably great, but they will not replace sex, so they need not be feared—just embraced, like anxiety. Resolution Number Two: I will learn to twitter, but I will read more real books, too. Not just on vacation.
After I do a little more sledding, I’m going to hop in the tub, finish Sarah Bird’s hysterical novel, and try to twitter about it. Then, I’ll head over to Garcia Street books, a really great old-school bookstore if there ever was one, to find lots more good reads to remind me why I do what I do. Then, energized, exercised and inspired, I will sit by the fire, pull out a pencil, and dig into my editing—an amazing memoir about a brave woman who grew up in a weird religious cult, a lot like The Glass Castle; a touching children’s story about a grandmother, and an inspiring collection of articles about bird rescues by a wonderful Texas woman who has a column called Bird Poop.
And as I do this interesting work, I will look out on the rainbow sun rays crossing the Sangre de Christos and be very thankful that while I do live in hard, anxiety producing times, I have also been blessed with opportunities for challenging work. Alien Santas, twinkling Chuck Taylors and God’s beautiful nature surround me—here in the pinon covered mountains, but also in the oaks around my office in Rice Village. It is up to me to take the time to look.
The news for the book industry is bad, yes, but if we don’t react in panic, the future’s still so bright, we’ll have to wear shades—maybe even those really cool Maui Jim sunglass readers. They’re so much sexier than a pocket protector.
Tune in next time to see if we actually make it to the long awaited Bobcat Bite before heading back down the trail to Texas.
