Books

I worked at a record store in undergrad (Finder's Records for you BGSU alums) and I had several regular customers. One of them was an English professor (whose name I don't remember at ALL) who was relatively snobby about her music tastes. Shortly before I was to leave to study abroad in Spain, she came in and asked me about my upcoming trip. I told her that I was excited but I was looking for some good books for the plane ride. She looked at me doubtfully and asked if I even knew what good books were. I listed some of my recent favorites (including Kingsolver, Smiley, Friedan, Sachs, Ozeki, etc.) and she looked surprised, like how could I - record store employee - know anything about literature? She wished me luck and left the store. The next day I came into work and my boss said that there was a package that had been delivered that morning; it was a bag of books with a note that explained that these were some of her current favorites, including A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley. I sent her a thank you immediately and also sent her some postcards from Spain, but I never heard back. Kindness of strangers....


And may I recommend an addictive website for those book lovers out there.