First, you have to understand that my mother was besotted with movies.

From toddlerhood, we accompanied her to the theater.  It is fair to say that we saw EVERY movie not banned by the Catholic church.  

That is, until The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.  I’m not sure how this slipped through the cracks. Mom hustled us out of there, so something must have been improper.  I don’t know to this day if it was banned by the church, but it was banned by my mother. (Ironically, Spark converted to the Catholic church.)

And so years later, I’m reading Muriel Spark.  I am cheered by Loitering with Intent, a witty novel narrated by Fleur, an eccentric novelist who entertains friends in a small rented single room. The landlord insists she is using a single room for double-room purposes, and that she must move to the expensive double room. Fleur laughs, but she is short of money, so soon she finda a job typing and polishing up memoirs for the Autobiographical Society. The members are rich, rather dull aristocrats, and love it when she makes things up.

But now… look below at what happened to my used 1980s copy of Muriel Spark’s Loitering with Intent. The spine has cracked and pages fall out in clumps as I read them.  Damn it!

Well, I’m simply going to approach Spark’s Loitering in the style of hikers on the Appalachian trail. They rip out the pages they’ve read and burn them. 

Mine are not torn out. They fall out!  And open burning is illegal. It pollutes and possibly starts wild fires. Don’t do it!

Anyway, my pages will go in the recycling pile.