Because Details Matter

These books caught my eye at the bookstore. They definitely make a nice boxed set of classics, but . . .  yikes!

There we go.

 

Much better.

More of That Synchronicity Stuff

I just love it. Maybe I'm actually living in the flow and don't know it, because this also happened:

A woman came into the library's book store recently and was looking for books by a particular author. I'm not sure what she said, exactly, except she knew how to say his name correctly. You can make up your own beautiful sounds--it's far too complex for me to attempt in writing. It quite something to hear the properly pronounced and accented name: "Paulo Coelho."

I could see that my coworker wasn't getting it. I wasn't completely sure that I was getting it, either, but somehow I knew what I needed to do: I translated. "She means Paul-oh COLE-hoe," I said. Yes, that's exactly who she meant! We didn't have the book on hand, but she's on the waiting list now.

Later that same day, as I'm reading along in Ilustrado (a novel set in the Philippines, for goodness' sake), what do I read? One of the characters says she likes a local author, but that "He's no Paulo Coelho."

I mean really, what are the chances?

For the record, Paulo Coelho is a Brazilian lyricist and novelist, and his book The Alchemist, already on my TBR list, has moved up quite a few notches. I'm thinking it's probably time for me to read it, given all these hints from the Universe.

Just Saying

The library is culling its collection, which is wonderful for the Book Store in a tidal wave sort of way. We're getting carts filled with entire letters of the alphabet from the fiction collection, plus lots of nonfiction.

Some of the books have never been read, which makes me feel sad. Imagine pouring your heart and soul into a book that is bought, shelved, and removed without a single patron's glance.

I suppose  that as long as the book was bought, the money is made and the author received satisfaction from that. But somehow I still believe there's more to writing than the sale at the end of one's labors.

Anyway, I've scored a few nuggets of gold as a result of the cull and processed a lot of (ahem) gravel, as well. And I couldn't help but gloat a little bit this week when a few generous tomes by Thomas Pynchon came through. I read The Crying of Lot 49 ages ago and remember nothing of it. Excerpts - read long ago at C.S.'s urging - from Gravity's Rainbow were memorable, but not in a good way.

Our lucky Book Store customers will find a few of Pynchon's recent works at the book sale next month, reasonably priced at $1 apiece and worth every penny!

Crazy Days

Well, this week certainly turned out to be one for the record books.

After my volunteer time at the library, I came home with only 2 books, which is an incredible demonstration of restraint for me.

The gregarious and affectionate Clouseau got his annual shots and felt very pitiful for the next day and a half. It was so sad to see him moping around. But it was good in a way, because it reminded me how dear he is and how much I love him -- something that's easy to become complacent about, even with those we love the most. Fortunately he's now back to his usual charming self.

We had friends in town but my back was hurting something fierce and radiating around to the front of my chest. Normally I'm rather stoic, but it's been going on for a while and reached some kind of a peak that made me wonder if I could be having another heart attack. (In case you don't know, women's heart attack symptoms can be very different from men's elephant-on-the-chest symptoms, so it pays to be cautious.) So after a delicious Thai dinner Kayak Guy and our friends dropped me at the Emergency Room. Better safe than sorry, right?

I can promise you that when you show up with a history and complain of chest pain, the ER staff gets very focused, very quickly. An EKG and some lab work later and they confirmed I was not having a repeat episode, so we're looking at back pain and the usual treatments of moderate activity, heating pads, etc. And I was home in 2 hours, after promising to see my cardiologist the next day. She was concerned but also thinking back pain, so it's all good. Hooray for tests that can give real answers to important questions!

With the "all clear" safely in hand, we went kayaking. (Kayaking doesn't bother my back at all. Go figure.) The wild sunflowers bloom extravagantly along the shores of Lake Jesup this time of year, and we hoped to paddle among them as we did last year. Unfortunately, the water levels did not allow that, so we were forced to look from afar.

Too deep to walk, too bushy to paddle. Sunflowers in the distance. 

You can't get there from here.

Near the parking lot, a clump taller than my head.

Narrow-leaf Swamp Sunflower, a Florida native.

A thunderstorm that passed just south of us made for some exciting wind and water on the way home, but all's well that ends well. It makes a better story when you have a little drama to go along with your adventure.

After the week I've had, you can be sure I'm giving Friday the kind of side-eye that says, "All right, come on, but no funny business, okay?"

A Find

The world of books is a marvelous place.

These beautiful Chinese books came in as part of a donation to the library's used book store. They are especially intriguing because they are "backwards" - opening left to right, and reading "back" to "front" and in vertical lines of text. I have heard of this but have never actually seen it, so they are a thrill.

I hope we can find them a new owner who will cherish them as they deserve. Do you know anyone? They are $2 each. (I'll mail them for free!)

In Which I Get Promoted and Learn a Dirty Secret

I started volunteering at the library and am enjoying the heck out of it. Maybe even a little too much.

I could probably spend my time sitting behind the desk, eagerly awaiting customers, but I can't help myself: I'm always looking for books to shelve, or sections that need organizing, or magazines that need culling and recycling.

My fellow volunteers are extremely nice people and big readers, as you might expect. One of them told me about her book group. They meet once a month, but they don't read each other's books. Instead, they each read what they want and then report on it - doesn't that sound divine?

I've also discovered that the lovely potted plants outside the library are maintained by the Friends of the Library group and especially by the few who are Master Gardeners. I had a long conversation about butterflies and host plants with one of them. We also discovered we have a mutual friend who lives over an hour north of here. What a small world!

This week we've had lots of donations, meaning lots of processing to do. We went through a whole cartload of books and pulled out the trade paperbacks for the book sale this weekend. We also checked the customer wish list to see if we had any special titles and added a passel of books in the Classics section (one of my favorites!). A few customers left with piles of hardbacks, and so the bookshelves had to be restocked from the back room.

Ah, the back room. That's where the better donations go to be processed fully. The shelves are well organized, but the rest of the room yesterday was a jumble of carts and boxes. Two people were working in there, but there wasn't room for anyone else. When restocking, we had to call from the doorway for a book from the part of the alphabet we needed, and it was handed out to us over the carts and boxes.

There's a scanner in there somewhere, which is used to determine if any donated books have a special value. If so, they are sold separately and there's a man who does that. (So far I have only met the recycling man and the security guards). Apparently sometimes we get dealers, too, who carry hand scanners and check prices right on the spot. This is all very exciting to me, because one of the reasons I volunteered there was to learn more about the used book business.

This week the bookstore manager asked me if I'd like to learn to work the scanner. Would I? You betcha! I'm eager to be one of the disembodied hands in the back room. 

I tried not to let my enthusiasm show in an unseemly manner, but I imagine it leaked through, because in the next moment she fixed me with a stern eye and told me to wear jeans for that, because often the books are dusty and moldy and the boxes are, too.

But still. Behind the scenes, getting a first look at possible treasures, in the back room! Wish granted.

Feeding the Fever

Book life is getting ready to explode, so I think I'd better confess now.

With more time on my hands, I decided to do some volunteer work to add some structure to my days. Where else to volunteer but at the local library's used bookstore?

The people are very nice and the system is quite straightforward. On my first day I learned about front desk operations, filed some magazines, labeled some shelves, and reorganized the Classics section. I also got a glimpse of the back room, where the donations are processed. (Talk about a vision of paradise!) Perhaps I will get to explore there soon.

Oh, and I brought home $20 worth of books. Thanks to the "we're so glad you joined the Friends of the Library" coupon for 50% off, they only cost me $10. But still, at $2 or $3 each, that's a whole stack of books that came home with me.

A few will help me with my writing coach work (another aspect of my new independence). A few were books from my reading lists, now reclassified from "looking for" to "on the TBR shelf." A few prize-winning gems that I already read will be swapped immediately for other books. And a few of them, well, looked like the sort of thing I'd like to read.

You can see where this is going: Great fun. Big mistake. I suppose I could have volunteered to work in a candy store with similar results.