It's like the Swan Station, but with more Playstation and less electro-magnetism.

Let me start off this post by saying what is exactly on my mind: Whatever is wrong with me, blame my kids.

Moving on...

The Books
Two years ago I whittled my considerable personal library down from close to a thousand books to around two hundred books. It was painful, but necessary. We hadn't the room and I was far too attached to some of the volumes. I got unreasonably nervous whenever I saw my kids migrating toward them.
Well, Brew Hampshire has provided me with the space necessary to store many, many books and I have begun rebuilding my library. I'm taking a very different approach this time around. I'm buying as many books as possible from thrift stores and garage sales. I'm amassing dozens of battered and worn paperback and trade editions. And I'm not freaking out when the kids handle the books (not outwardly, anyway). In the past couple of months, I have doubled the size of my collection and I see no reason to stop. I've even built a custom bookcase to display my crappy pulpwads.

The Bookcase
We have (had) these two, quite tall, ash trees in our front yard. They are (were) sort of tucked into the creek surrounded by some other trees so you don't really notice them. Anyway, they're dead. So... Wait. I think I already wrote about this. I chopped down a tree. Does that sound familiar to anyone? I think this is old news. Did I talk about the bookcase? Or had I built it yet? Whatever. I built a bookcase out of a tree that I chopped down and it's awesome. There. You heard it twice.

The Books and the Bookcase
My bookcase, which I made from a tree I chopped down in my front yard (three times!), is almost filled up already. No worries. There's another dead tree out there waiting to be a bookshelf.

I bought an amazing chair today at the Salvation Army. They sell chairs sometimes and sometimes I buy chairs. It's a good partnership. Anyway, today's chair is possibly the greatest second-hand chair I've ever encountered. It's covered in beautiful, aged green wool and has wooden handles. It rocks, it reclines, it appalls my wife... Everything I require from a chair and more!

I've been thrifting a lot lately. Chairs, books, art, LPs... I think I'm subconsciously turning my basement into someone's aunt's lake house. I'm desperately looking for a record player, so if you know where I can get one, please let me know.

Thank you,
      Matt Beers