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By HB, June 11, 2010 6:37 pm

I finally read American Gods. Because of Twitter, of all things. Neil Gaiman is on my list, and there was a Twitter book club of sorts that started reading American Gods last month. Since it’s been on my list for a while, I pulled it out and decided . . . now. Now is the time.

And . . . I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the story and the “epic”-ness of it. Death and birth, gods, souls, life and love and all the messiness that comes with being human. The concept of roadside attractions and places of power—I found that particularly compelling. But out of all 588 delicious pages, this (on page 207) might be my favorite:

“Shadow thought. “Hey, Jacquel?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you believe in the soul?” It wasn’t quite the question he had been going to ask, and it took him by surprise to hear it coming from his mouth. He had intended to say something less direct, but there was nothing less direct that he could say.

“Depends. Back in my day, we had it all set up. You lined up when you died, and you’d answer for your evil deeds and for your good deeds, and if your evil deeds outweighed a feather, we’d feed your sould and your heart to Ammet, the Eater of Souls”.

“He must have eaten a lot of people.”

“Not as many as you’d think. It was a really heavy feather. We had it made special. You had to be pretty damn evil to tip the scales on that baby. Stop here, that gas station. We’ll put in a few gallons.”

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By HB, May 22, 2010 2:38 pm

Serrano had a garage sale today. They opened up all the security gates, and there were dozens of houses with garage sales in front. Since our couch is horrible, we drove past the sales, looking for couches… just browsing, really… but then we saw a couch. The boy and I got out to take a look, but it turned out the couch was already sold. So I got back in the car.

BUT THEN… I saw it. This Nambé bowl, just sitting there on the ground. Our family has a few Nambé pieces from my grandmother. They’re beautiful, I love the style, and they’re expensive. And so when I saw one, a bowl just like one we have from my grandparents—I got out of the car, and said, “Hey, how much for the bowl?”

“Eh, I don’t know. My wife brought it out. I don’t even know… I’ll take $5. Looks like a $5 bowl.”

And the transaction was done. I gave him the $5, and got in the car and drove away. But he was wrong.

WRONG. That is not a $5 bowl. That bowl retails for $150. But he didn’t want it, so I now have an heirloom piece that will have lasting value for my family, for less than the price of a combo meal at Carl’s Jr.