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I'm in Waterloo at the moment, and next available to work in September 2008.

Alias Tyler Adam

February 16th, 2006

A blank luggage slip, a 1973 dollar, a sketch of a woman, and two carefully clipped news items.

What do they have in common? All discovered between pages of the Book of Bread, purchased for $9 at Old Goat Books.

Are they all just meaningless tokens, grabbed in haste for use as bookmarks? What about the birth notice, for a person only a year younger than myself? Or the banknote that’s been withdrawn since 1989?

How could the birth notice have been a bookmark? Unlike the others, it was tucked in right in front of the Table of Contents.

Who’s the woman in the picture? What’s the date on the other news story? Who carefully clipped it out, and why?

All just a huge co-incidence? Maybe.

But perhaps some wonderful story connects the five items to the book about making bread… My left brain says to seek the truth of the matter or ignore it. My right brain would rather be free to invent.

Isn’t the better part in the telling, anyways?

Update: For those that asked me about it, the title of this article is a reference to Alias Grace, in which Atwood says that she used the facts wherever possible, but “where hints and outright gaps exist in the record, [she] felt free to invent.”

Mike

← Earlier Later → Posted at 10:16 pm to Literature.

Discussion

Did you buy the book? It must have had lots of use for a short time by the previous owner. (Kind of like my own bread machine.) Amazon says it was published in ‘86. Seems like a lot of $ for a used book… Well, at least you got a dollar back!

Posted at 11:06 pm on February 16th by Gregg.
Oh, interesting, I hadn’t considered the original publication date.

I think CAN$9 is pretty good, for a good-condition hardcover book this useful. 90% of recipe books that aren’t JoC seem to be be “Shock your friends with teh easy meals + reduce fat.” Neither of those are particularly priorities for me; I’d rather learn to do it right first, healthy and quick can come later.

As for the cost, well, maybe I’m still in textbook mode, where a used, 400 page softcover still fetches > CAN$40. (I also picked up *Murder on the Orient Express, for $3.50.)

Posted at 5:44 am on February 17th by Mike Purvis.
Cookbooks tend to be in the $20-$30 dollar range as far as I know (however as I tend to consider “cookbooks” to be somewhat equilivant to “the Joy” I may be somewhat off…). For hardcover & good condition I’d have to agree that $9 is pretty good, and that’s not just because of textbook prices. Although the cookbook prices that I see at the campus bookstore may have affected that. (I’ve seen textbook cookbooks… but that’s in college bookstores, not university ones).

I do have to agree that the clippings are likely bookmarks, just from my experience - if I cut a clipping, or have an expired coupon, that I no longer need, I tend to use it as a bookmark eventually. And cookbooks (that don’t come with riboons)accumulate bookmarks faster than other books do. Although the money surprises me… thinking on it, I MIGHT have used a cheque at one point, but never cash. Although any cash I had is almost guaranteed to be of a higher value, because by the time that I would have two whole dollars at a time the toonie was already well established.

Posted at 9:53 pm on February 17th by Christine.
It’s funny about the bookmarks… in about twenty minutes of browsing through it, I’ve already got three or four that I’d like to make when I get a chance. (including a millet bread and a delicious sounding pear loaf.)

Posted at 6:49 am on February 18th by Mike Purvis.

You can use Markdown for style. I love hearing from readers, but please don’t hijack the discussion, use offensive language, or try to sell anything.

Alias Tyler Adam

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