Arlynn predicted the floating bookshop would have a good day, and she was right. My first customer, a middle aged woman, purchased a fantasy novel set thousands of years ago in what is now America. As she paid, she seemed at the point of laughter. I asked what was so funny. "Life," she said, and proceeded to get the giggles. Maybe she was laughing at me. A while later another middle aged woman spotted Jonathan Kellerman's Bad Love, which I was surprised hadn't gone much sooner, given his popularity. Then the last of the Sylvia Browne collection was scooped up by a woman who couldn't pass it up at the price of two dollars. And a young man in his early teens, to whom I'd refused to sell any modern books for fear his parents would disapprove, was drawn to the wonderful drawing of the beast on the cover of a large paperback edition of the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle classic Sherlock Holmes mystery, The Hound of the Baskervilles. I saw no problem in letting him buy that. I just hope he is not turned off by denser prose that characterized nineteenth century British works. Thank you, all.
Alex, retired, stops by every time I'm at the corner of East 13th & Avenue Z. He lives in the building on whose grounds I set up. A few weeks ago he asked if I knew anything about getting poetry published. I suggested duotrope.com, which he has been perusing for the right venue to send his work. Today he stopped by with his lovely wife Nadine, and purchased A Hitch in Twilight for her. Arlynn would say I'd been repaid for a mitzvah. Thanks, folks. Later, as soon as I got home, I got a call from actor-singer Johnny Feets, who weeks ago asked if I knew of any apartment openings in the area. As luck would have it, a high school classmate of mine posted a note on her Facebook page on behalf of a friend - and John will be moving in on June 1st, not here but in the old neighborhood, Bensonhurst. I hope this too will also fall into the category of a mitzvah for which I will be rewarded with a book sale.
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