Today at Logos

Well, it was another slow day at Logos.  Sandy had a slow morning.  She said her biggest sale had been a $20 purchase she herself made.   She finally left and shortly after, the guy who was browsing the shelves left too.

Things were v-e-r-y quiet.  I started reading Bill Bryson's "The Mother Tongue," one of my favorite books which I've been thinking of re-reading and I guess I got into it because a girl snuck up on me and I jumped when she handed me a book on Buddhism to ring up for her.

Some time later a nice older man wearing a sweater vest and a straw-looking hat (though on further examination, I could see it was cloth) stood in front of me and kind of cleared his throat (I hadn't noticed him coming in either).  He looked awkwardly at me and asked "How are you?"  I said I was fine and then he waited a bit longer and finally said he was looking for a book about olive oil.   He looked for quite awhile, then checked the bargain books outside and left without making a purchase.

I broke out the mandarin oranges I'd brought with me for a snack.  Mandarins this year are really bad.  Smaller than last year and half of them are so dry I don't even try to eat them.

A young woman strode purposefully into the shop and headed right to the back.  I thought she must be searching through contemporary fiction, but she said that she was looking for the Tao Te Ching, but didn't find it.  She didn't buy anything, but said she'd be back in 2 weeks to check again, hoping someone would donate one.

A young man stood at the open door, checked the bargain books, then gave a huge audible yawn and moved on without entering.

The notes I have in my book here read:

-Switched to kindle (to read the book I was finishing there, since nobody would see me)
-Bored
-Took pix of bracelet
-Played with Word with Friends

The "took picture of bracelet" needs explanation.  I recently bought a "100 Good Deeds" bracelet. The idea is that you slide a ring along the beads every time you do a good deed (without tellling anyone), the goal to do 100 good deeds.  I really bought the bracelet as a donation to the project.  My bracelet was made by Jamira Nanavati from Zambia.  The goal is not only to get people thinking about "good deeds" but to give work to women in African countries.  Only mine does not fit the way it should.  I ordered the extra large size and you are supposed to wrap it around your wrist 3 times and then adjust the length, only there is no way it will go 3 times, and 2 times works, but then you have all this cord leftover and I can't figure out how to shorten it.

(the ring that you slide is marked with an arrow)

But eventually there were more customers.  Bruce (the who is always dressed in white) also scared me, engrossed in my bracelet, when he told me we were holding a book for him.   It was on the Stigmata.  He paid for it and left.

A couple with boxes of take-away lunch, wearing fraternity shirts with drinks in their hands and what looked like badminton racquets in their backpacks spent some time looking at old books, while the store filleld with the aroma of whatever was in their boxes.  But they didn't buy anything.

I was reading in my book about a character who went into a restaurant in Los Angeles owned by chef Rick Bayless.  I was embarrassed to admit that not only do I know who Rick Bayless is, but I could even picture him in my mind.  I obviously watch entirely too much Food Network!

A young woman came in with a big box of books to donate.  Most of them had to do with autism, but there was a series of children's books that were so unusual, I copied down all the titles.

- Don't Look at Me (for kids who are "different")
- Don't Make Me Go Back, Mommy (for children suffering from Satanic ritual abuse -- really?  This is a big enough problem that kids need a book about it?   I'm shocked!)
- Please Come Home (about divorce)
- I Can't Talk About It (about sexual abuse)
- My Body is Private (warning about sexual abuse)
- Lisa's Parents Fight

They were all quite well written but I had never encountered anything like that before.  I would like to know more about the woman who donated those books!

A friend came in and signed up to be notified about Logos' French conversation night (which I still have not had the nerve to join)

A guy came in wondering if we sold blank notebooks.  I sent him off to The Avid Reader.

A guy in an A's cap asked if we had any simple mysteries.  Seems he likes mysteries and he's trying to "get back into reading," and everything he finds is too complicated for him.  I suggested Alexander McCall Smith books, but apparently he didn't like those.  He looked around for awhile and then left without buying anything.

My friend did not show up during the 4-5 hour, or at all.

We did have a drama out in the bargain books section outside.   This concerned Paul, a man in black with the sides of his head shaved, and Tom, who was wearing a Carlsbad beer t-shirt.  Paul said he liked the shirt.  Tom was surprised, since he didn't know the guy.  Paul said something to him and grabbed Tom's shoulder.  Tom shrugged him off and loudly said "I don't want to talk about it!" and walked away quickly.  Paul yelled after him, "I don't need this shit!" and then he, too, walked away in the opposite direction.  I wonder what that was about!

A geeky, nerdy looking guy bought a book by Somerset Maugham (my second Maugham sale in 2 weeks!) and a philosophy book called "Language, Truth and Logic."

A Mom with 2 kids, a pre-teen girl in a really nice pointillist zebra shirt and a boy about 8 came in and walked right to the children's room, where they stayed a long time.  When they came out, they had a series of about 4 or 5 books, each about a specific teacher "from the Black Lagoon" ("The Music Teacher from the Black Lagoon" was the first one I noticed).  After Mom had paid for those, the pre-teen found a book on Egyptian mythology she wanted so Mom bought that too.

A big guy with a smaller girl picked up a bargain book and then said they were holding books for him.  I found them...a set of 4 books about philosophers. His sale was the largest of the day, $44.

I noticed a strange man outside.  He looked like a Hassidic jew, or an Amish man might, if he went to the beach.  He had filmy white shorts that looked more like a slip (in two layers), an orange shirt, one of those stereotypical hats, bare legs ending in black not-quite-patent leather shoes with white socks.  He had a scruffy beard and black horn-rimmed glasses.  In spite of my fascination with him, he didn't buy anything.

Walt arrived 5 minutes early, before Susan and Peter's son came in to relive me, so he got some time to browse like normal customers.