About that circle of creative folks that every artist needs…

Cynthia Manuel, for instance. First of all, what kind of an insanely optimistic looney-tune would open a used book store in this era ruled by Amazon? It’s a quest of Joan of Arc-ish proportions. The Eclectic Reader website is gorgeous, so there’s no point in gilding the lily by adding anything here except the link.

Strangely, in the distant past, before meeting here in Fort Collins in 1986, Cynthia and I both lived in the same part of California. When I moved here, her previous shop, Toad Hall Books, was one of the first places I took note of.

When I published Salon: a Journal of Aesthetics, we had a publication party at Toad Hall. The theme was “Fahrenheit 451 – come as the book you would memorize, if all books were to be burned.” (Actually, all you had to do was write the title on a sticky label and affix it to your clothing in the collarbone zone.) It was a terrific event that found the zine some new writers, artists, and fans.

Cynthia took part in the Banned Books Read-Ins, quite a few years back.

And more recently, at The Eclectic Reader, I threw in my two cents worth at a symposium about how to spend less money on nonsense, and more on buying ourselves our creative time.