Last Saturday Donna and I went over to the annual Book Fair put on by the local AAUW. In years past this was one of our main suppliers of cheap reads, but now that we both have been Kindlized(TM) we still go to hunt for a gem or two and a few books for the nieces and nephew in Washington state.
For as long as we can remember they have found a local space that at one time was a large open retail shopping place. This year they couldn’t find something like that so they settled for a three story office building that used to be the home of a Bomb Plant sub-contractor. All the office cubical walls were still standing in the four large rooms on each floor and they had printed maps directing shoppers to which cubicals housed which category of books. I was both awkwarder and easier than the typical one large room with straight rows of tables.
They were only allowed to set up on the first and third floors, so the button for the second floor was taped over. They had also deactivated it, so when the curious among us pressed it, the elevator would just pass right by on the way up or down. This led to speculation as to just what was left behind on the the 2nd floor. A couple of lead lined boxes with nuclear waste, where the original paper X-Files were moved after they where closed down or alien artifacts previously held in Area 51. More likely though it was all the phones, chairs, chair mats, pencils, pencil sharpeners, desk lamps, etc. left behind from floors numbers 1 & 3.
Donna picked out a few books to send off to the west coast and I, for a total change of pace, picked out a couple of audio books. One was a book I remember hearing about a decade or so earlier and wanted to read, but never did, The Art of Racing in the Rain and the other was a book I did read about a couple of decades ago, The Trials of Rumpole.
I have talked to people who swear by audio books while driving long distances, but I can’t do it. I would be listening to the first chapter and the next thing I knew we were in the middle of chapter three and I couldn’t tell you what happened. Maybe it is because I like like to pay attention to the driving part of the trip, unlike them. My plan for these was to just sit back on the couch, close my eyes and enjoy someone reading to me. I started listening to chapter one of The Art of Racing in the Rain and the next thing I knew was I was in chapter three with no recollection on how I got there. I must have reverted to my 6-year old self and fell asleep while being read to. So much for that. I wonder how much the two audio books would go for on eBay?
