Book It, Believe Me

6 weeks ago by @newukenewyork · @lindsaymachine

Liner Notes

“Book It, Believe Me” - #fawm 50/90 2024 song 36

I could write a footnote for every line in this song, but probably the first thing to mention is that I was writing it as a response to a #postcard (shown below) sent to me by @lindsaymachine, as part of a FAWM 50/90 forum challenge. To my surprise, the postcard came from one of my favorite bookstores ever, in one of my hometowns. Lindsay didn’t know I went to high school in Manhattan, KS, but sent me a postcard from “The Dusty Bookshelf,” run by a community friend of my husband’s from his youth. Thinking about bookstores and libraries led to this song.

There’s a Carnegie Stout Public Library in Dubuque, IA that went into this, as well as my years working as a bookseller for Borders in Kansas and NYC. I’m curious whether a listener will find places to enter this song, or whether it’s more written for me. ❤️

I also have to credit @heather for asking about what rhymes with “neutral” (my answer is in this song), Peter Greenaway, Anne McCaffrey, Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Francine Pascal’s team of ghostwriters, and the school essay contest that encouraged me to write about my dream of living in a library.

15 lyric drafts left to finish from 2023…

All my originals: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6mTUlPL-MmAm45IMVgat1necrh2mGnT6&si=sAdXP581ZNU__9rn

#fuc #acoustic #acousticonetake #ukulele #personwithukulele #onetake #girlwithukulele #singersongwriter #libraries #books #midemfoke #postcardchallenge

Postcard (though the site I uploaded it to has made it a weird square):

Lyrics

The Carnegie Stout with the wide marble stairs
The cool metal shelves here hold dragons
And robots and Sweet Valley spinners
I don't fold back corners on Caldecott Winners

The bed is on fire and our pages are burning
Somebody give me my paperback baby back
Said you were neutral
Well, I'm Kama Sutral
I hid in the bathroom and read it from cover to cover
Then texted "Come over"

A ladder on wheels is the car of my dreams
And I'll build a nest in the alleys
Of beanbags and mass market mysteries
I don't write in margins or care about your history

CHORUS

BRIDGE
Book it, believe me
The plot twist I didn’t see coming was you
I turned every page on the slipcovered signed copy, too
Last one, they left me sitting on read
I've never been happier
That's what I said.

CHORUS

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