BOOKS READ 16: THE END OF THE AFFAIR BY GRAHAM GREENE
When I was working at the bookstore I had found a copy of this book misplaced in a small shelf. I had recognized the name from the film based upon it, and it was almost the end of my shift and having nothing better to do, I started reading.
There was such a sad weight to what I read and I enjoyed it, maybe because I was bored out of my mind at the bookstore and starting to feel down, maybe it was the end of the summer, maybe it was my increasingly distant relationship with a boy, maybe it was this and that and everything. But for some reason I didn’t buy the book, or read any further than 5 pages. The book slipped away from my conscious memory after that and would only arise whenever I was in a used bookstore, trying to think of books I wanted to read, and this was one that always came up. All the covers for the ones I found were quite hideous to me, or just plain boring or generic, and I settled on this one because it’s classic Penguin design and $4.95.
I don’t know if it’s cause I am happier or what (and without, ha, said job, and boy), but I didn’t feel that same weight, that same importance that I had felt when I first read those pages of the book during the summer in the bookstore. I didn’t particularly dislike the book, or like it that much either, but I kind of wish I could have felt those feelings that I did, that’s why I got the book, but that’s how it goes.
And whatever, that’s okay.
