The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham News and Links for Monday, November 20

good morning and happy monday everyone. you’re pretty much on your own for links today as fitzie is travelling from Colorado to DC.

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Last week I read the unfortunate news that the former owner of Capitol Hill Books died at age 86.

The man, Jim Toole, was a retired rear admiral known for his grumpy and loveable personality.

Capitol Hill Books is, in a word: magical.

Every nook and cranny is filled with the written word. Above and below them are quirky handwritten signs (“Read him, dammit!” one sign posts) that almost act as a map to literary discovery.

I believe I only had one interaction with Toole some months ago. After spending a good 20 minutes on on the second floor (Fiction) I eventually landed on The Charterhoues of Parma by Stendhal.

I went downstairs to check out.

“Ah! I wish I had the chance to read this in my lifetime,” Toole told me.

“There’s still a chance,” a friendly customer at the store replied back.

I knew nothing about the book, but for some reason, in that moment, I felt as if I had been given a giant seal of approval.

I began reading it later that day. And let me tell you, it is a slog.

The Charterhouse of Parma recounts the exploits of a nobleman during the Napoleanic years. There’s all sorts of drama involved that is not always caused by Fabrice del Dongo.

It contains a multitude of characters maneuvering through the dynamics of different courts in different countries in different eras. I’m having a hard time with it.

Two months have passed since that day and I am not even one-third of the way through it.

I had to put it down. Since then I’ve read four other books and am halfway through reading Reading Lolita in Tehran.

I had no intention of finishing The Chaterhouse of Parma. But the news of Toole’s death has got me thinking differently, and now I am remembering the brief interaction I had with him.

“Ah! I wish I had the chance to read this in my lifetime.”

Of course, there’ll be thousands of books I will never get to read. And one day I will probably say a similar message to someone I meet.

But I don’t want to say that about The Charterhouse of Parma. So once I am done reading Reading Lolita in Tehran (and maybe this Raymond Chandler book I picked up at the store the other week) I will again open the pages of Stendhal and finish the book.

I did receive the seal of approval after all.

Fitzie’s track of the day: Take the ‘A’ Train, by Charles Mingus and friends

And now for your links:

The Washington Post’s obituary for Jim Toole