Booksellers and booksmellers

Booksellers and booksmellers by David Benjamin “I know every book of mine by its scent, and I have but to put my nose between its pages to be reminded of all sorts of things.” — George Gissing MADISON, Wis. — I started smelling books — every serious reader does this — at the Tomah Public Library,…

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Why I read fiction

Why I read fiction by David Benjamin “The alarming flaw in his psychological equipment — although in the American history he would write with his life nothing would appear to be flawed — was that the terrain he viewed and judged and acted upon could have been that of another planet. It had no connection…

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The year of the Ape Man

The year of the Ape Man by David Benjamin “I am as free as nature first made man, Ere the base laws of servitude began, When wild in woods the noble savage ran.” — John Dryden, Conquest of Granada (1672) MADISON, Wis. — Lately, my know-it-all attitude has been getting me into trouble. A high-school…

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