I'm proud to say that something I wrote was included in a beautiful new anthology of writing called Airmail, from the wonderful Women of Letters reading series, which I participated in last year. This issue includes pieces from Zulkey.com interviewees like Tavi Gevinson and Susan Orlean and was curated by the lovely Marieke Hardy and Michaela McGuire. I hope you check it out
On the subject of books, this weekend I went to my parents' to purge my childhood bedroom library, since my mom was having the shelves painted. This collection of books pretty much spanned the age of about 10 to when I moved out on my own, which was about 22, so it was quite an electric collection, and reminded me of various phases of my life that were important at the time, and then got left behind in book form..
This is one I'm pretty sure my mom gave me, possibly because I was an avid penpal in the days before the computer: in addition to friends from the U.S. (and even in my home town), I wrote letters to to different British penpals (one of whom I'm Facebook friends now) and one in Singapore. So I guess this would have been my way of figuring out what they were really all about. As Emily Gould notes on Instagram, "What babysitter isn't on drugs?"
In high school I had quite a collection of Absolut ads on my walls: I never got a good count of them but I'd say at least 30-50 if not more. I need to track down some old photos of my bedroom to see how it looked. These, to me, were so of their time: why exactly were they so cool, especially to someone who had never had a sip of vodka in her life? (I guess I should read the book.) I used to go so far as to sneak copies of Wired to the upstairs of Barnes & Noble and tear out the back page (because they had the coolest graphic art Absolut ads.) I apologize to Barnes & Nobel and Wired for this. But this was also like one of the biggest crimes I ever committed as a youngster, which I think is pretty good. Incidentally, when I do drink vodka, I typically prefer Tito's.
I'd just like to say I had and read this book before it was a musical. And I have a journal somewhere where I can prove to you that I came up with the idea of a Billy Joel musical before that was actually a thing. I'm just saying.
In college I had a wonderful teacher named Penn Szittya with whom I studied Dante and Chaucer. He was one of my favorite professors--he was just so enthusiastic (and that stuff can be pretty fun and romantic/dirty.) I just think it's funny that I held onto this book, like I was going to use it again someday.
In addition to being a would-be handwriting expert and part-time petty criminal, one of my former hobbies as a youngster was making jewelry. My bedroom at my parents' house has a small sunroom attached to it and I liked thinking of that as my "studio," where I'd glue together earrings or practice making Fimo clay beads. The name of my company, in case you were wondering, was Artwear By Claire (ABC). In seventh or eighth grade, I actually went so far as to sell some of my wares at the annual St. Nicholas Parish Christmas craft fair and I made $40, so I'd say I was a success.
I just like this because it pretty much dates itself, and especially because we are just coming out of a big Princess Bride nostalgia period.
Finally, I have this because it was the instructions to the very first incarnation of Zulkey.com. Since this version came out, Dreamweaver was purchased by Adobe and has gone through eleven updates. And also, I now use Movable Type.
Anyway, some of these books got saved for the next purge, but I plan on taking many of these (and their ilk) to Half Price books, where you can guarantee you will sell all your memories for a good $18-$30 total.