The places we’ve been

Last night Jaws and I checked out more locations for the Charlie film. We went to one actual textbook store, because that’s where the story takes place, and one regular book store, because it seems like it would be easier to get a regular store to let us shoot there. But an academic sort of atmosphere is what we really want.

The college store felt like, as Jaws put it, “a 7-Eleven with books.” We couldn’t get out fast enough. The regular store made me want to stop, browse, and read. The air in there felt alive with words. This was our second scouting mission, and although we’re not to the point of approaching anyone I feel compelled to buy something at each stop. Maybe it’s a goodwill gesture. At the college bookstore I bought a bobble bottle. At the regular bookstore I bought Jeffrey Ford’s Edgar-award winning Girl in the Glass and a new translation of Dante’s Inferno. 

On the way home, we reminisced about books. Real paper and board books. Jaws is a lot younger than I, but he won’t read on his phone. That seems weird to me, but when I tried explaining what I love about Stanza, I felt like a lazy bum. I considered going into the whole Project Gutenberg addiction, which would clarify everything, but it might also scare him off from making another movie with me.

But we were of one nostalgic mind on the goodness of books. Location scouting has reminded me of what I crave about the look and feel and smell and touch of real books. It just doesn’t seem to be getting us any closer to finding a location.