Ellie Mae

Ellie Mae
Beautiful Ellie Mae

Freddie, the French Bulldog

Freddie, the French Bulldog
Lazing on a sunny afternoon

The artist

The artist
Ollie Mac

Ollie and Annie

Ollie and Annie
Azorean grandmother

Acrylics and watercolors

Acrylics and watercolors
Cannabis and sunflowers

Papa and Ollie Mac

Papa and Ollie Mac
Priorities, Baby

Acrylics and watercolors

Acrylics and watercolors
Hollyhocks

Mahlon Masling Blue

Mahlon Masling Blue
My friend and brother.

Mark's E-mail address

bellspringsmark@gmail.com

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Guess and by Golly


I am doing the A-Z challenge,  focusing on places or entities that can be found within Mendocino County.  I do not intend to imply that the subjects of my writing are the most significant, only that they have personal relevance to me.  Today’s letter is J for Book Juggler.

Guess and by Golly

The Book Juggler is a used book store right in the center of Willits.  I have been stopping in at the Book Juggler for as long as I have lived on the mountain because I am a book worm.  Though my interests have become much narrower, I still know that I can go into the Book Juggler, and find all of my favorite authors well-represented.

Interestingly enough, the Juggler has a program going where a person can bring in a box of used books for credit.  My mom has been trading her old used books for “new” used books for as long as I can remember.  They do not take all books, but if the authors are fairly mainstreamed, and if the books are in reasonably good shape, one need never pay for books-just barter them.

I will confess that in recent years I am more likely to have done my book shopping north, in Eureka, rather than south, in Willits, but that is because I think of browsing through book stores as a leisure activity, one to be savored, rather than as a task, such as shopping for groceries.  Annie and I go up to Eureka as often as we can get away, simply because we like to walk around, browsing in thrift stores, antique shops and used book stores.   Regardless, when I go to the Juggler, most of the time I can find any number of books by my favorite authors, and hope that  I have not already read them.

What I am more likely to look for is an author with whom I am unfamiliar.  Then if I like a book by him or her, I have a new wealth of books from which to choose.  So it is a “guess and by golly” sort of proposition.  I can usually tell pretty much right away, if there is something good to be had.  If I really like a book, then I will probably like its brothers and sisters; conversely, hate one book and forget the rest.  A couple of rare exceptions include Patricia Cornwell, whose protagonist is a medical examiner named Kay Scarpetta.  I read several of her books but eventually gave her up simply because the books were too graphic.

Jonathan and Faye Kellerman are two other authors whose work I have sampled and then bailed out on.  I read two or three of each’s works, but eventually decided that it required too much effort.  Otherwise, one book is usually enough to sort out the appealing from the non-appealing.

I saw an ad on-line recently, saying that the Book Juggler was looking for a full-time employee, and I thought to myself that I could probably get the books really cheaply then.   I dangled that idea around in my little pea-brain for a while, just long enough to decide that if I was going to work forty hours a week, most likely for minimum wage, that I was only going to earn the equivalent of what I could now make in two days.  Yes, I agree that I would not have such creaky knees if I was working in a bookstore, as I have today from climbing up and down the scaffolding, but that’s life in the country.

Besides, I can always start to trade in some of the hundreds of books I have accumulated for new used books, thereby saving the cost of purchasing, and I don’t have to work full-time to accomplish this. 

2 comments:

  1. I've heard of the book juggler but have never stopped in. I agree that the siblings in a book family are usually similar. I like both of the Kellerman authors but haven't read much of them lately - stuck in non fiction right now.

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    1. I probably should give them another shot; it has been several years, and maybe I would see them differently now. xoxox

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