Yesterday at Logos

As slow as it was at Logos last week is as busy as it was this week.  I usually take four little slips of paper to write notes on, but this week I needed 5.  Mike had a busy morning too, though he's trying to be an overachiever, writing down the title of every book sold.  I record by genre (CF for Contemporary Fiction, SF for Sci Fi, BB for Bargain Book etc., with the number of each genre sold "CF (2), BB (2)," etc.)  Poor guy left a note on the sale sheet that things had been too hectic to record the titles of all 8 of the children's books he sold!  I reassured him that such completeness wasn't necessary.

My first customer was a cheery British guy who came in, saying he had a few minutes before his train was due to arrive (we are 2-1/2 blocks from the train station) and he had time to brows.  He found a philosophy book and left a happy camper.

A tall long-haired woman with dark framed glasses, wearing bell bottom pants and a plaid "big shirt" came to the desk with 4 books by Deepok Chopra, then took 2 back, standing at the bookcase for awhile checking her phone.

A guy was happy to find "The Girl in the Spider's Web" by David Lagercrantz, the brave author who is trying to keep the Stieg Larsson Lisbeth Sander series going.  The guy said he was willing to pay $6 to see if it was any good before buying any more of his books.  I suspect he will like it, since the New York Times reviewer said, "Fans of Stieg Larsson’s captivating odd couple of modern detective fiction will not be disappointed.”

A lovey dovey couple looked around for awhile then joined hands, hips and lips as they walked out the door without buying anything.

A guy carrying a frou frou drink with whipped cream on tops of it.  He was wearing a grey t-shirt with a figure that looked like an ultrasound of a pink monster baby inside a bright blue placenta.  He bought a couple of books on European travel.

A guy was looking for a book on The China Study (which he was surprised I didn't know since it was quite well known, he tells me).  He was surprised we had no computer to check to see if we had the book since he didn't want to take the time to check the shelves.  I'm always surprised when people are disappointed that we can't check a computer.  I mean, people, really!  It's a used book store.  We may occasionally have more than one copy of a book, but most of the books are single copies.  Can you imagine the headache of keeping track???

A thin middle aged woman with spiky metallic red hair bought a couple of bargain books and said she was amazed to read the store policy (now posted on the window) about donating to charity.  She said she would bring some books to donate

In the middle of confusion, our Brasilian daughter Sonia called and I asked her to call back later that night (since we were going out to dinner right after I left Logos).

Interesting sight outside--a woman walked past with some pink and white streamers on a pole.  I wonder what that was about!

A woman was wearing an attractive kind of sweater-poncho-hoodie thing in a nice striped pattern.  She bought a book on Chagall and one on travel in Egypt.

A colorful woman in a powder blue jacket with a pink knit cap and a black t-shirt with "Italia" on it in pink bought a couple of bargain books.

A couple with a wirey dog who looked like "Shannon," a dog I remember from my childhood, was looking for "Eugene Onegin" and was happy to find the Proust work.  I was happy to pet the dog.

A girl bought a Lisa Sing book ("Shanghai Girls") but was quite uninterested in my telling her it was an entertaining book and that there was a sequel.

A woman brought "Satanic Verses" to the desk and said "I guess I should finally read this."  I told her that I hoped she would find it was worth all the trouble the book caused when Salman Rushdie wrote it.

The next woman was wearing a purple coat, dark grey Nikes with electric pink trim and aqua laces.  She was there with a guy who was probably her Dad and bought the very thick book, "The Historian" by Kostova Elizabeth.

Two student women types came in, one with long blue hair and a nose ring (how do you blow your nose with a nose ring?) and the other with brown striped hair (striped with blonde) piled on top of her head.  They didn't stay long and didn't buy anything.

A guy with whitish-grey hair, carrying a bag from The Paint Chip (an art supply store) came in, leaning heavily on a cane.  He bought 8 hard back books, some of which were oversized.  I filled up a bag for him, and he added a couple of books to his Paint Chip bag, but each of them was so heavy I didn't know how he was going to carry them while using a cane.  He said he would sit down when he needed to on the way to his car, which was about 4 blocks away.

2 girls came in and one of them bought 3 bargain books, counting out the price in quarters.

My friend arrived at 4:45 and wondered where the humor books had gone.  That was the first time I had noticed that several of the shelves had been rearranged.  The mysteries, which have always been right at my elbow, had now been moved toward the front of the store.  My friend bought 2 bargain books and a sci fi book, "The Flying Sorcerers," a book of short stories, not to be confused with "The Flying Sorcerer," my favorite David Gerrold-Jerry Pournelle shaggy dog story.

A Hobbit-looking guy (or maybe the mole-looking Wesen from Grimm) came in with a "small bag of books to donate."

A guy came in with two bags to donate, then two more, then two more.  In all there were 14 bags of books when Susan the Peter got to the store.  Fortunately, he wasn't interested in a receipt.

A UCD looking student bought a book by Edward Gorey and an art book.

A mom with 2 kids, a preteen girl and an older teen boy came in.  The girl bought a fantasy book and the boy bought "Paradise Lost."

At the same time the store was filled with.

• A barrel-chested short guy who reminded me of Richard Dreyfus
• A woman in a uniform from the Calif. Department of Fish and Game
• A short Asian woman with a tall non-Asian man
• A middle aged couple

Only the park ranger bought anything, one of the Alexander McCall-Smith "Ladies #1 Detective Agency" series and was surprised to hear there were others in the series, since she'd never heard of them.

A group of people, all holding yogurt cups from the yogurt store around the corner, paraded by preceded by the afternoon joggers.

And then Walt arrived and we went off to Sushi Unlimited again to "celebrate" what would have been David's 44th birthday.