Friday, July 8, 2016

Today at Logos


When we canceled our trip to Santa Barbara, I was very good about UNcanceling our Blue Apron delivery for the week, but I forgot to let Logos know that I would be here to work after all, so Peter was very surprised to see me when I arrived, but I'm sure he was happy to have the afternoon off.  I brought two more bags of books in and think I am finally coming to the end of my Big Book Clean-Out.  I am cautiously optimistic that the books remaining, after the last culling might possibly fit on the shelves available.  Be still my heart.  It is funny, though, to see my life's collection of books all over Logos.  There is a whole display of Gilbert & Sullivan books, for example.  It will be interesting to see if anybody buys any of them.

From the looks of things, Sandy had a busy morning.  My afternoon was decent, but not as busy as her morning  The store was full of customers when I arrived.  My first customer was a young woman who bought a book on chess that was at least 3" thick.  Her male friend bought a travel book about Madrid and a book on Buddha.

A young woman in a beautiful deep purple bejeweled top bought 3 fantasy books, a huge book of poetry by Blake and a bargain book on Russian aristocracy.

A short white haired man with a huge belly and a bag slung over one shoulder lumbered in, bent over, and went right to the literature section, where he found a copy of Ivan Turgenev's "Fathers and Sons," which he said he'd been unable to find at the Avid Reader, the new book store in the next block.

A woman asked if we had a public restroom, which we don't.  I sent her to the bank building across the street, figuring I'd never see her again, but she returned and spent a long time sitting on the floor at the foreign language books.  She had a huge head of very curly copper-highlighted black hair that was just beautiful.  She bought two books in French.

A man was hoping to find a book on World War II by Winston Churchill, but did not find one.  He also asked if we sold calendars and I had to tell him no.

A woman wearing gym clothes with a yoga mat rolled up under her arm came in with her iPad asking me in a voice so low I could barely hear her if we had books by a specific author.  Every time I asked her to repeat what she said, she said it softer, and finally whispered.  Then she held out her iPad to show me the author she was looking for, but held it so only she could see it and fought me when I tried to move it so I could see the screen.  I finally did figure out what she was looking for and directed her to the section where she should look, but we did not have what she was looking for.

The next person in the office was a kinda friend.  She's the sort of person who always has a long story to tell you and today she was looking for a volunteer who had given her a book that was about the same subject as another book she was reading.  At the time she wasn't sure she would like it, but it turned out she loved it and felt she hadn't thanked him properly and wanted to know if I knew who he was, which of course I did not, since I knew very few of the other volunteers.  In between the start of her story and the end of it, she went on and on and on about comparing the two books and I couldn't follow a thing she said, so was glad when another customer came up and she decided she should leave.

A man bought two history books, one about a history of the Druids.  I was remembering the memorial service we went to years ago where I met a Druid and spent an absolutely fascinating afternoon listening to his stories about Druids in Ireland.  I don't remember anything he told me then, but I remember being enthralled.  The only thing I remember was about St. Brigid and how maybe she was a Druid?  Anyway at her shrine, which we saw, but did not visit, there is a famous fountain which is not the real fountain because the druids built the fountain and it is hidden near the tourist fountain.  

My friend showed up at 4:15 and bought a pair of opera books, each of which came with CDs.

A family -- mother, father and four girls -- came in.  Dad was wearing a Stanford t-shirt.  The girls looked around the kids room, but ultimately only the Dad bought a book--an Italian dictionary.  He left a book he had thought of buying on the desk instead of putting it back on the shelf.  I asked him if he wanted that book too and he said "NO..my wife has been a little mad at me so...."  When he left I turned the book over so I could see the title, which was, "The Art of Sexual Magic."

The next guy...almost my last customer (Susan arrived with him) was a huge guy with a heavy jacket (in this heat?) and a huge backpack outfitted with it looked like everything he needed to survive.  He was quit dirty and the smell of his body odor was overpowering.  He also had a big black dog with him, who was NOT happy to be in the book store.  He grabbed a Tarzan book off the shelf and bought it, and then left.  Susan said he's been reading all the Tarzan books, one at a time.

A guy bought a copy of "The Great Gatsby" which was $3-something and he paid with dimes.

A dignified older woman (maybe in her 80s?) was dressed in a lovely pantsuit with a straw hat decorated with a ribbon that matched her blouse.  She walked with a cane.  She bought two history books, including Cokie Roberts' "Founding Mothers"

A zaftig woman in hot pink bought a book of Icelandic history.  I said something about Iceland being hot these days since they won the two soccer tournaments, but she said she didn't follow soccer and knew nothing about it.

Walt arrived and we came home to our Blue Apron empanadas dinner (empanadas were delicious!)

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