Several weeks ago on a really nice Saturday, I went walking down my street for I can’t remember what reason and as I was coming up on this little antique store, I saw that they had a few boxes that looked to be full of vintage road maps, sitting outside the store, along with a couple of chairs, a table, three lamps, and other must-haves. Maps are another obsession of mine. I’m not very good at using them, but I do like looking at them. It’s mostly to do with the colors and shapes and typography.

It took me a little over an hour to go through all of the boxes and assign the maps to 1 of 3 piles:

1. Have to have it.
2. It might be cool if I have it.
3. This map sucks.

There were nine maps in the first pile. Nine. It didn’t feel right to leave with nine. Ten is a good number. Or five. I might have even been able to go with seven. But nine made me uncomfortable. Nine says you’ve run out of time. Nine = almost. It says there’s unfinished business. So I made myself leave with only nine because I thought it was dumb that I was debating the significance of nine as if it were important.

A few days later, I mailed them down to Anne Elser in Atlanta. She teaches where I went to school and she’s pretty much an expert at everything and has excellent craftsmanship and is kind of like magic. Lately, she’s become obsessed with bookmaking. I also make books, but she knows how to make them the legitimate way and these maps needed to be in the hands of a professional. I just didn’t feel that they were born to be subjected to whatever it is I might do to them.

I asked her if she would make me a book out of one of the maps and then put the others to good use in whatever way she deemed appropriate. Anne is also timely because she already made my book and mailed it and I just got it yesterday and it’s the greatest thing in the world. Now I just have to make myself write in it.

Thank you, once again, Anne.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 5th, 2008 at 11:47 am and is filed under Brooklyn, Current Obsessions.
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