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Mad Scientist? Librarian? Maybe both!
Jan. 29th, 2008 05:38 pmSo today in lab I fiddled about with an age-old brass spectroscope for which I had to jury rig a slit out of this weird white rubber tape, adjust and rearrange and fix it until things were halfway readable... and then we went and used another spectroscope another group was done with.
I'd be ticked if it weren't for the uncontrollable glee at mad science with instruments made of brass and wood.
And I'm feeling awesome and peachy keen because James Ballard just wrote this:
"The other day, I paused in front of my book case and I marveled at it.
Two full shelves of books I've read (not counting some other books on the full height book case next to the smaller one). I bent down and noted two books I had read (Hexwood and Westmark) on the bottom shelf. I picked them up intending to set them on top of the books on the middle shelf, but in lifting them, they were brought close enough for their odor to waft past my nose as I took a breath.
These are two of the books![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mayamaia gave me two years ago Christmas, the first time we met, when I drove through on my way to Arizona. She bought them from a hole in the wall used book store, and the scent of the books in my hand, the sort of dusty, papery, warm smell that only aged books have, my mind was thrust back to that day for a moment. Then to every used book store I've ever been in, every library. In that moment I remembered every book I'd ever brought to my nose and inhaled its scent, every imagined moment sitting by a fire drinking cocoa and reading, every real moment spent curled under a blanket with a good book.
The other day, I paused in front of my book case, and I smiled."
I'm so proud!
I'd be ticked if it weren't for the uncontrollable glee at mad science with instruments made of brass and wood.
And I'm feeling awesome and peachy keen because James Ballard just wrote this:
"The other day, I paused in front of my book case and I marveled at it.
Two full shelves of books I've read (not counting some other books on the full height book case next to the smaller one). I bent down and noted two books I had read (Hexwood and Westmark) on the bottom shelf. I picked them up intending to set them on top of the books on the middle shelf, but in lifting them, they were brought close enough for their odor to waft past my nose as I took a breath.
These are two of the books
mayamaia gave me two years ago Christmas, the first time we met, when I drove through on my way to Arizona. She bought them from a hole in the wall used book store, and the scent of the books in my hand, the sort of dusty, papery, warm smell that only aged books have, my mind was thrust back to that day for a moment. Then to every used book store I've ever been in, every library. In that moment I remembered every book I'd ever brought to my nose and inhaled its scent, every imagined moment sitting by a fire drinking cocoa and reading, every real moment spent curled under a blanket with a good book.The other day, I paused in front of my book case, and I smiled."
I'm so proud!
