Today Bought Books

1. Visions of Gerard by Jack Kerouac

   I love Kerouac’s writing style. I have read On the Road which I absolutely adore, and Big Sur which I have finished recently. On the first page of this book there is a handwriting that says:

   Dr. Christian,
   
             This is a present
   
   of mine so that you may share
   
   some of the literature that
   
   I love in the same fashion
   
   that you presented Blake.
   
   Taking this class has
   
   altered so much in my
   
   traditional approach to
   
   literature, and for this
   
   I am eternally grateful.
   
   Whatever may have evolved
   
   in the classroom will never
   
   be representative of the
   
   amount I learned. Again
   
   Thank You.
   
             love
   
             Alen S. Lova (?)
   

   There’s no date on the note, and I’m not sure if I have spelled the name correctly. Nonetheless I love reading these notes on the used books.

2. Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

   The title, at the first glance, is giving hope, right? The sun brings the day and the day and the light are always carry hope. But the title comes from Ecclesiastes, and when you read the passage you understand, more or less, that what Hemingway talked about in the book:

   The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
   
   Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all *is* vanity.
   
   What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?
   
   *One* generation passeth away, and *another* generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.
   
   The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose.
   

3. The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell

   This quartet consists of: Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive, and Clea. I have no idea what the books are, nor I have read any work by Durrell. This one is a recommendation from Sahel.

   Justine, Balthazar, and Clea are published by Pocket Books in the 60s, where the covers were hand-drawn, sometimes cheesy paintings of the characters, and the places in the books. A warning is printed in the first page:

   Not for sale in the British Empire market

   Which is quite funny.