Barnes & Nobles II
Wondering around the bargain section of Barnes & Nobles is like looking at your bookshelf where the pile for “What was I thinking” or “My uncle didn’t know what to give me for xmas” books are. But there are some books that I hope I wouldn’t get even if I was very drunk or if my family despised me, like “Elvis favorite meals” or “Guide to cats: How to survive your neurotic owner”. No wonder why they are all under 5 bucks. At the “travel” bargain section — ( These sections can be perfectly organized. Not like walking into a used bookstore at the Maleta building in downtown Belo Horizonte, where you can only find a book if you ask the owner of the place. Usually an old man sitting in the back of the store. He knows every shelf by heart, since he has nothing else to look at or to look for… ) — So at that travel bargain section there was a book titled “Amazonia”. I picket it up, expecting to put it down by the second page… books like this are usually too outdated or talk more about the Spanish speaking south american countries than the Brazilian part of the amazon… even though Brazil hosts most of it. But instead, I started dazzling over pictures of cocoa trees, acai, exotic birds and indians as if I am looking at the most remote place on the planet. For someone from southeastern Brazil, it is really remote. I can count the people I know that visited the amazon forest. Most of them are foreigners, not Brazilians. Joao you are not included on the list: I remember your stories about eating turtles and tucupi. Only college classmate who ventured into the forest.
After my speech about eating acai and banana smoothies, about a parrot and a turtle that I once had, about the rubber era in the north of Brazil, as if I know much about it, I finally shut up. But only for a few minutes. After finally putting the book down the speakers played an old Samba. I was amazed even though that sound is played on every elevator ever built. By the time it started playing the song “cajuina”, I was sure I was doped by the pills I just took trying to stop a headache from becoming another migraine. Either that or the guy in charge of the counter on the CD section was. When I looked at the counter all I saw was a typical white caucasian American, as American as they come. He probably believed he was playing another CD in Spanish. Probably no, I’m absolutely sure he had no clue that was Brazilian Music, in Portuguese …he probably doesn’t even know there is a Portuguese speaking country in South America, like most. Before leaving the store I saw a CD named Acoustic Brazil on the shelf saying: Now Playing. At least it wasn’t playing only in my head, along with this entire monologue.
