After Forever - Chapter 5. (And a link to chapter 11.)

NaNoWriMo 2004 has started.

I'm still doing my entry from 2003.

But I have finished chapter 11, which is now up on my NaNoWriMo site after a small mishap involving confusing two characters' names, and I'll have it up here as soon as I catch up with posting these chapters.

Without further ado, then, here's the Great Fair's centrepiece - the auction.

( Chapter V, 'How To Leave Anford Without Your Wallet Empty'. )

Shamelessly Self-Indulgent Post.

I bought a few books in Oxfam today. I'd gone back to look at the classics shelf one last time, and there was a young man sitting on the stool next to it looking at the books. He turned his head, smiled, and whispered, "I love old books."

I thought about this on the way back home. I like books, but I wouldn't say I love them. And as for old books - they have a certain frailty about them, an aura of "don't touch me" that I don't get from new paperbacks. (Old paperbacks don't really count as "old books" - it's a surprise if they last longer than 50 years.)

Books are, to me, more important for what they contain than what they look like. I've almost filled my shelves here in college with books of all shapes and sizes - some of them brightly coloured paperbacks, others thick textbooks, and still others small, curious-looking hardbacks. Together, they don't look particular pretty or impressive. In fact, the whole effect looks somewhat messy. And, to be honest, I haven't read nearly as many of them as I'd like. I mean to read them, which is why I buy them, but I often forget. What they give is possibility - every new book has the promise of of new knowledge, new ideas, new possibilities to open my mind to.

Last year's NaNoWriMo entry had a theme of books and libraries as part of Daniel and Livia's story (particularly Livia's). This year, one of the underlying themes is that of possibility and probability.

Or it might be, possibly. It all depends on where the story goes...