It was a fun day at the floating bookshop. I received book donations from five regulars, including the Merry Mail-Woman and Abdul the Friendly Porter, and I had some sales. The first, Clement G. Martin's How To Stay Young All Your Life, went to a 68-year-old black woman who could have passed for 48 - easily. She should write a book and co-op the title from the tome in Mel Brooks' Young Fron-ken-steen (1975) - "How I did It."
Hector bought The Reader's Digest Healthy Cookbook. He learned the culinary arts while doing a ten-year stretch in prison. Cooking was so foreign to him in the beginning that he didn't even know the water had to boil in order to make mac 'n cheese. He asked if I knew how to tell when pasta was ready. I was sure he would say by biting into a strand - but noooooo! "Throw it up to the ceiling. If it sticks, it's ready; if it doesn't, it's not." I laughed, unsure if he were joking or serious.
Among Abdul's donation were The Teachings of the Tao, which sold immediately, and Joel Samberg's The Jewish Book of Lists. "How much is that?" a black woman asked. When I told her, she opened her purse, put on her best accent, and said: "Such a deal." She was thrilled that I got the joke.
Thanks, folks.
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