Just Go To The Record Store and Visit Your Friends

"I always tell the girls, never take it seriously, if ya never take it seriosuly, ya never get hurt, ya never get hurt, ya always have fun, and if you ever get lonely, just go to the record store and visit your friends." Penny Lane

 Are you familiar with this quote? It's from Almost Famous, this great movie about a high school kid who gets the chance to accompany an up-and-coming rock band on their concert tour in order to write an article on them for Rolling Stone Magazine. It was directed by Cameron Crowe and won an Oscar in 2001.  (Not that Academy Awards really matter when it comes to truly good movies.) Penny Lane, who, I believe, is one of the most famous groupies, was played by Kate Hudson, and this movie is pretty much the only one in which she played well or showed that she has some kind of  a talent when it comes to acting. 

Anyway, I love this quote just as much as I adore the  movie, and whenever I wander into a bookstore to browse their stacks it pops into my mind. Although music is utterly important to me, my real good friends I find in bookstores. Whenever I feel blue or lonely, and I'm in need of cheering up, I go to my favorite second-hand bookshop, and start searching, digging, and, most of the time, finding and purchasing. The exact same thing happened to me a couple of Fridays ago when on a gloomy morning I felt like visiting my good old friends, so I decided to pop into Red Bus... and then an hour later I found myself leaving with a large bag in my hand filled with books and a wide smile on my face. This is the result of my hunting:

•  Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan - I won't even get started on the importance of Betty Friedan and Feminine Mystique. However,  if you are not familiar with her name, here are a few hints: Friedan was one of the leading feminists of the 1960's, the co-founder of the National Organization for Women, and dedicated all her life to fighting for women's equality and emancipation from their traditional role.  Her book, The Feminine Mystique marks an era, as it depicts the roles of women in industrial societies, especially those of the full-time homemakers. It also raises awarness for stepping out of those traditional roles and purse en education. This woman and this book is so freaking important that she's taught in US  History classes even in Hungary. Although I consider myself to be an independent and  courageous young woman with a strong sense of self, I am not a feminist. I'd rather have a steady marriage, be a stay-at-home mom and raise children than have a successful career but no family to go home to. (Should any of the feminist teachers of the American Studies Department at my university read this, they would slap me in the face, right before kicking my out of their classes.) Yet, The Feminine Mystique is a must read, especially since I am writing my thesis on Sylvia Plath whose whole existence was about the lifelong battle of either being a lover, a wife, and a stay-at-home mother or becoming a poet with a successful career . Despite of the importance of the book, my library has only one copy of it and even that one you cannot lend, so I simply had to buy it, especially since it was a buy-one-get-one-free bargain for 600ft.
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - Another classic that I am yet to read, I had been keep coming across it both in bookstores and on the internet, so I finally bought it.
• One Fifth Avenue by Candance Bushnell - Honestly, I do not know why I bought it. I guess I need rubbish, cheap chic-lit every once in a while, because it's easy, meaningless, and utterly fluffy. There are times when you fancy some junk food, you eat it and you won't even remember 5 minutes later that you had it. Yet, the next time when you have a good old home-cooked meal you'll enjoy and appreciate the real thing even more. That's exactly why I consume stupid chic-lit every once in a while.
• Ecstasy by Irvine Welsh - I have never read anything by Irvine Welsh before, not even Trainspotting, although I loved the movie. It was the other half of the buy-one-get-one-free bargain, plus it's time I dug myself into this genre as well.
• The Art of Sylvia Plath by Charles Newman (ed.) - As I have mentioned before I am writing my thesis on Sylvia Plath, and it is almost impossible to come across a reference book on her art, so no wonder I almost jumped out of my skin when I spotted this volume on the shelf. Not even for a split second was it a question whether I would buy it or not.

I found some real treasure, didn't I? Except for the Bushnell novel, of course.

.