The Marquez Restoration of 2012

It was an ungodly sight.

Years worth of collected books, decimated by severe termite infestation. I couldn’t recognize the Dan Brown books, and couldn’t distinguish Animal Farm from Catcher in the Rye. It was painful to think that the books that were supposed to be part of my mini-library were gone. Spared from the destructive wrath of the termites were several reference books from high school and college, including World History by Perry and Organic Chemistry by McMurry.

And so I thought of the greatest restoration project this household has seen: The Marquez Restoration of 2012. Starting next year, every week or two, I shall be purchasing the following titles (as well as new ones) to replace those that were destroyed from my collection:

• Angels and Demons (Dan Brown) and an unofficial walkthrough
• The da Vinci Code (Dan Brown) and an unofficial walkthrough
• Deception Point (Dan Brown)
• Digital Fortress (Dan Brown)
• The Lost Symbol (Dan Brown)
• The Last Templar (Raymond Khoury)
• Twisted Series (Jessica Zafra)
• The Pearl (John Steinbeck)
• Of Mice and Men (John Steinbeck)
• The Prince and the Pauper (Mark Twain)
• The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
• Poon (F. Sionil Jose)
• Catcher in the Rye (JD Salinger)
• To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
• The Prince (Niccolo Machiavelli)
• Animal Farm (George Orwell)
• A book from the Alex Cross series
• A motivational book from my 4th year high school curriculum and student government adviser (with dedication)
• A Kinky Friedman book
• Five books which are all 40 years older than me, including Casablanca and a Mario Puzo novel 
• 20+ Archie Digests and Double Digests
• And several more novels and reference books.

Moral lesson: Never store books in a corrugated box.

All that’s left to say is: challenge accepted.