Thursday, August 5, 2010

Books in the Trees by Tim Jones

Oh, I have just read simply the best short story. It's short - the sort of thing I think of as 'Sandwich Fiction': sandwiched between prose and poetry, and you can read it with a sandwich in hand. It's a story for all those who love the P-Book - the physical book - and fear its demise. Here's how the story begins:

Books in the Trees
by Tim Jones

As soon as I understood what a book was, I resolved to become a bookkeeper. To the dismay of my parents, I was forever climbing trees in hopes of catching an unwary volume. Of course, I never did; they were far above me, flapping unmolested from branch to branch.

My proudest achievement was to bear back to earth a whole egg, but my pride turned to dismay when my mother scolded me and insisted that I put it back in the nest immediately. "That might be another Calvino or Bulgakov!" she told me. 



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4 comments:

Tim Jones said...

Thanks so much, Mary, for posting this link, and for your kind words. I'm gald you enjoyed the story! (As it's the final story in "Transported", I thought I'd better come up with the right note to finish on.)

Rachel Fenton said...

Reminded me of "An Alien Sends A Postcard Home"...and a line from Kes "I know a nest"...

Very cool flash.

susan t. landry said...

wonderful story! wise, fun, and, true.
thanks, Tim--and Mary, for leading the way...

Anonymous said...

There are some other wonderful, quirky stories in Tim's collection, Transported, too.

Claire