YES Books in Portland...

Here I am at the YES bookstore in Portland Maine troubling myself about buying a cheap stained and tattered first edition of  henry miller's book, an air conditioned nightmare, a travelogue about his amble across america in the 1940's after his return from europe which i have been meaning to read, but have been unable to track down off line until now.  surprised to find that it is nothing more than a 200 page rant, a spewing of venomous distain and unvarnished hatred about everything american, and i mean everything.  after 10 glorious years in europe screwing and sucking and writing his way across the continent, the inconvenience of WW2 forced his return to the object of distain he previously sought to escape.  guess the french resistance should have been more to his liking although i guess obviously not.

i often trouble myself about buying used stuff becauseyouneverknow when the object will be inhabited.  i am generally not a believer in the paranormal, but i have had some unsettling experiences with antiques, a certain "inhabited" hotel room in Epinal, France in which I awoke with a start to the feeling of an overpowering presence that drove me out in the middle of the night  and don't even get me started on "vintage" clothes.  "nightmare" is the kind of book i would have written if i could write (minus the venom), but i can't so i take pictures and am often capable of 20 or 30 lines of moderately pithy prose to annotate this pictures so i am thankful.  never had that problem with a used book, so i should probably go back in and buy it, which I did.  thought it would be a funny sexy romp through america in the 40's, but i got that wrong.

Coincidently, we were just in Portland Oregon a few months ago on the last leg of our quest to see all of the lower 48 states and other than Voodoo Donuts, going to  Powell's Bookstore (no pictures...too big and under renovation), had to be a highlight where I found the holy grail...my search for a 1940 edition of the book that has had the most influence on my career as a photographer had come to a happy end, "California and the American West" by Edward Weston and Charis Wilson, and published by Deuel Sloan was on the shelf with dust cover for $50 an unheard of price.  Interestingly, Jackie said she had the feeling I would find it there.

Two Portlands, two books, and two donut shops.  Voodoo in Oregon, and...here, which I failed to document because it was great but not visually compelling and I didn't know it would be this important.  Love Portland, so another great reason to return.

                                                                   Pablo