Ojai

When I was in college, I went to used bookstores frequently. I enjoyed it. I liked browsing the almost organized shelves for the names of authors I was reading in class or hearing about from new friends. Used bookstores in the Bay Area were an appealingly disheveled contrast to the plastic-wrapped, crisply new, Southern California stripmall bookshop experiences of my pre-college years. I felt I was breathing in new possibilities, not just of books to read but of identities to become. Ahhh. The Choices.








Ok, so that was then. I went to a bookstore this afternoon in Ojai. Lovely bookshop, partly outdoors. Resident cat. Respectable collection of first editions, including a paperback Sirens of Titan for a mere $200. But after fifteen minutes, I started sneezing and couldn't focus on the books any more. How did I put up with that smell for such long periods of time before? It is one of the worst odors in the world. I had to get out. The Sirens of Titan will have to beckon to someone else!













Ojai is pretty and quiet. Streets lined with charming bungalows. Nice little yarn shop with a decent selection of Crystal Palace yarns. Good coffee at the Ojai Coffee Roasting Company. Like some of the towns in the Napa Valley, but closer to home.