The Wall

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“What a dear old wall that is that runs along by the river there! I never pass it without feeling better for the sight of it. Such a mellow, bright, sweet old wall; what a charming picture it would make, with the lichen creeping here, and the moss growing there, a shy young vine peeping over the top at this spot, to see what is going on upon the busy river, and the sober old ivy clustering a little farther down! There are fifty shades and tints and hues in every ten yards of that old wall. . . . It looks so peaceful and so quiet, and it is such a dear old place to ramble round in the early morning before many people are about.” Jerome K. Jerome, “Three Men In A Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)” Ch. 6 (1889)

Revelation (of sorts)

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One common feature of a university campus is the book-sale: some arranged in a list and posted (and frequently re-posted) on bulletin boards; while others are physically displayed in some fashion whether in boxes or outside offices, on shelves.

A daily routine frequently brings me by one of our seemingly permanent book-sale fixtures here on campus. Today, one title caught my attention so I picked it up. This is not the kind of book that would usually interest me, but today I could not keep my hands off--today the book was nearly irresistible. I picked it up, impressed by it’s hardback the relatively good cover condition. I flipped it open.

An entire page was underlined. I turned a few pages. More underlining—entire pages. I thumbed through the book to discover that some reader had meticulously (or perhaps not so much so) underlined the entire book as it was being read. Reaching the end of the book, the glaring omission of underlining suggested to me that these few pages had been completely ignored.

Curiouser, I noticed through my flipping that nearly every colon used by the author was circled by the reader.

A creeping feeling came over me and I re-shelved the book. I may have absent-mindedly wiped my hand on my shirt.

My parting glace at the title was filled with hope that the previous reader got much out their reading. It must have been a revelation.  

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