Books in. Books out. Hell yes!

I was so desperate for something to read.  So desperate I was actually more than half way through Zinsser's book; "On Writing Well."  According to some, this book is second only to Strunk's "The Elements of Style" which is on most lists of the top 100 non-fiction books of all time.  "Elements" is another book I have begun and may finish one day when I am again desperate.

Then I noticed an article in the Sacramento Bee announcing an SPCA benefit book sale at a mall nearby.  I thought, well I have never been to one of these so maybe I will stumble across something.

I came up with a couple of reasons to explore this a little; first, to round up and donate books around home that would never make to our keeper shelf.  The keeper shelf holds a few special books that I hope someone in our family discovers to read, or read again or loans to someone one day.  Books that don't make the shelf are generally donated to Goodwill or, if particularly crappy, are sent directly to the recycle can out back.

My second mission would be to cruise the Internet for another look at all-time best non-fiction book lists and note any titles I might want to look for at the sale.

I wasn't expecting much but when I arrived early this morning on the first day of the sale I noticed the parking lot was surprisingly full.  I grabbed my "yes sir, yes sir two bags full" of books and headed in. There was a line outside waiting to drop off donations but it moved pretty quick. She said; "Do you want to fill out a form for tax purposes?"  Nah, I want to leave a few residual tax dollars in the Fed coffers to fill in a pothole on one of our nations's decrepit highways.  I said; "No thanks" and handed them over.

I headed in and was surprised to see what appeared to be thousands of books neatly laid out spine up on tables and somewhat categorized.  This was in an area maybe a quarter the size of a typical grocery store?  Even more surprising, there was a crowd of well over a hundred crammed into the area, all closely checking out the titles. I waded in and and spent most of my time ducking browsers who were seriously examining areas I wanted to get at.  I finally made it through two sections that caught most of my interest; History and Biographies.  Suddenly I had five books picked and was headed for check out...yup, more lines.  My five picks were;

• "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings", Maya Angelou
• "The Autobiography of Malcolm X", as told by Alex Haley
• "Kitchen Confidential", Anthony Bourdain
• "The Gangs of New York", Herbert Asbury
• "Clapton", Eric Clapton

Five books. Ten bucks.  Can't miss.

All right, all right...brief explanations are in order I reckon.  The first two are on most lists of all time best non-fiction books so I have to check them out.  "Kitchen" is written by one of my favorite characters...he has a couple of world travel/food television shows I really enjoy. "The Gangs of New York" was a great movie so I am naturally curious about the book and finally "Clapton" seems interesting right?

The only distressing thing about the whole experience was the number of old people who were there. But then, I look in the mirror and see...well, you know what I see.