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2000-06-29

Years ago at my beloved public library I discovered a book in the fiction stacks called TIKE AND OTHER STORIES by Jonathan Strong. It was published some time around 1970, and I think what caught my eye as I browsed was that the spine had a tiny little photo of a guy's head. A really cute, 1970-looking guy who turned out to be the author. I checked it out and read it and it rocked my world. Blew. Me. Away. Especially the long title story, "Tike," which is the story of a guy, 18 or so, hanging out in his life. Told so simply, so evocatively. I savored every sentence.

I found a copy somewhere (a used bookstore, I suppose, though I can't remember for sure). I told one friend about it -- he tracked it down and was equally amazed -- but otherwise, it felt like my secret. Strong had won some awards, and the book had done well at the time, and he'd written some novels in the meantime. I read some of them, and they weren't bad, but they didn't hold a candle to the beauty of Tike.

I've been thinking lately about the phenomenon of out of print books, and getting curious to see which of my favorites over the years are still in print. I've been going to the big online bookseller site and typing in titles and authors' names. This morning I happened to type in Jonathan Strong. Guess what I found? THE HAUNTS OF HIS YOUTH, which came out last summer and is an expanded version of TIKE. (Some critical accolades for the book appear here.)

The publisher is Xlibris Corporation, and I know that Xlibris.com is this service that makes books available for printing on demand. I went there and searched for Jonathan Strong but found nothing, so maybe the two are unrelated; I don't know. What I know is how cool it is that this book is available again.

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Meanwhile, my life continues to please me on a daily basis. Which astonishes me!

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