I bought a book I'd already bought (and read)

Never Done: I bought a book I'd already bought (and read)

It was late. I was tired. The trains were messed up. I was sad. I saw a bookstore. I went in. I decided to find a good summer book -- not too hard, not too long, but still something that would jump off the shelf and draw me in for a meaningful summer read. I looked in staff picks, but mostly they were books I'd already read -- at least 10 years ago. I moved over to new fiction and found a book that looked wonderful until I picked it up and felt how heavy it was. I didn't want anything too heavy. And then I found it. A new (well, 2009) novel by Lorrie Moore, one of my favorite authors, called A Gate at the Stairs. I knew right away that it was the right choice for now -- familiar because she's such a familiar author, but adventurous because it's a new novel to me.

I bought it, and I went down into the messed up subway, feeling relaxed because I had something to read, I cracked the cover, and immediately I knew. I had read this book before. I thought about going back up and out to return it and find a new one, but it was late and I was tired and the trains were messed up and I was sad and I just wanted to get where I was going, so instead, I sat down and waited for the train.

And then I realized that this is the first time that doing something again was something I had never done before, and the Möbius strip quality of this thought was amusing enough to let me open the book and start to read it again.