First off, it's coooold...Man, am I glad I'm not living anywhere north of the Mason-Dixon line. At present I can only see one benefit of living and working in a city like Chicago: I don't think I'd worry about my social security being around (and/or cut by 27%) when I'm 73. Simply -- my 6', 140 pound, poorly-circulated frame wouldn't make it that long.

(I used to think it would be interesting to go out in a remote patch of the woods for 4 or 5 days, eat nothing for the duration, have no real sensory stimuli other than the bambis and bears around me, and then see my "spirit animal" on the last day. Not anymore. I am not only afraid to subject my naturally emaciated state to a hunger strike, but also dread the likelihood of actually seeing what is guaranteed to be my supernatural bestial buddy: the ever-shivering, hairless chihuahua.)

***

Been doing a lot of reading this month, an activity I'm betting has increased due to the aforementioned "blue temperatures." There's certainly no incentive to leave the house and submit myself to the ice of the outside gray air.

For a while now I've been hankering to read some Richard Matheson, so I climbed the eight stories of UNC's Davis Library and checked out a copy of his "horror" novel A Stir of Echoes this past Monday. (Which I believe was also made - recently, in fact - into a movie starring Kevin Bacon.) The book was a quick read, and I finished it off about two days later, enjoying the twist ending so common to the science-fiction and fantasy works of Matheson's time.

I decided to hold on to the book for a few days after turning over the last page, and I've got it on the table in front of me as I write, shivering (despite the HVAC unit's constant blowing), on the couch. I kept it because, sometime while reading, I noticed that the book has its own history, and while it may end up being a pathetic journal entry, I'm going to write about THE BOOK rather than its contents.

Apart from some ragged edges along its spine, the book and its clothbound blackness are in relatively decent shape. The appearance wasn't what caught me, though, either: At some point I took a closer look at the materials located on A Stir of Echoes's inside cover and its first "real" page. I'm not sure why I found any of this UNC Library "bureacracy" particularly interesting, but it struck me that the Due Back "sticker" most likely was the very same one since the book's arrival to UNC and introduction to library circulation.

I found a yellow acquisition slip in the front cover's "breast pocket" which lists the book's date of receipt as December 30, 1976 (30Dec76SAB) and its estimated price as $30 (which contradicts a pencilled-in price of $35 on the next page.) In addition to the author's name and birth year (1926-), book title, and date of publication (1958), the slip indicates that the Davis Library copy is a First Edition.

(So, Matheson was 31 or 32 when he wrote and published the book. Humbling...)

Accompanying the acquisition slip in the pocket is a 3"x8" "Book Card" which -- with its scattering of small rectangular punchouts -- I'm tempted to either run through a player piano, turn in instead of my next ScanTron(c)-based multiple-choice exam, or - better yet - submit in place of my next voting ballot. There's also a long, gray arrow with a 5pt black border that runs about 3/4 the length of the card, presumably indicating which way the thing goes into whatever machine was used year's ago to document/track the book. The goodly folks at Davis Library have clearly been obedient, complying with the old relic punch-card's printed request to Please keep this card in book pocket.

Getting back to the "Due Back" sheet, which, as I say, has probably been in the book since its acquisition in '76. (I'm betting that it didn't go into circulation until a few years thereafter, based on the frequency of borrowing from 1980 to 2005. See below.) The note at the top is doubly anachronistic. The first sentence indicates the book was originally housed in another, older library on UNC's campus:

This book is due at the LOUIS R. WILSON LIBRARY on the last date stamped under "Date Due."

It's now in the 8-story Davis Library.

And, secondly, to assure the person who needs more than the initially-alotted time to read Matheson's book, the second and last sentence states:

If not on hold it may be renewed by bringing it to the library.

Obviously printed before the advent of the Personal Computer and the Internet.

Finally, the very first "due back" stamp, in faint blue ink, was for July 8, 1980, and the book was returned a full three weeks prior to that on June 13. If I'm counting corretly, it looks like the book was checked out 8 more times in the 80s, 9 times in the 90s, and only 7 times since the new millineum.

Now I've just got to drop it (spine first, please!) into the Book Return receptacle by FEB 23 2005.

***

One last note which, like my last "book report", is most likely of little interest to anyone but me: I "rediscovered" Willie Nelson today...in actuality just the Greatest Hits CD I presumed lost and stopped looking for about 6 months ago. So, I was pleasantly surprised when -- needing a Neil Young fix -- I unobservantly took out the CD from its Harvest Moon case, popped it in the DVD player, and instead of effiminate wailings got Nelson's cowboy croonings. Willie and Neil were shacked-up together for the last half year, getting it on in the same jewel case!

DISCLAIMER: I am not responsible for any disturbing mental images any of you (three) readers might now be experiencing.