I have Sundays off. I usually make a quick trip to the BOOKMARK, pick up some books, and drop them off at my own store. Sometimes, I'll see a small pile of books that she hasn't filed, and I think I'll quickly put them away.

Two hours later I'm still putting books away.

I just like doing it, for some reason. I have a very similar need at my own store; I really should be filing comics. Instead, I work on my day off in my wife's store.

It's almost like meditation to me. Very relaxing. Just being around the books, putting them away, is very satisfying. I like to see what new has come in, what trends are developing. Which authors have suddenly been discovered? Which authors are being forgotten?

I think I've said before that I can always tell what was on the tables at Costgo a month ago, because we suddenly get piles of them. They stack up in the backroom, and it seems as though we'll never get rid of them. Then, little by little, the flow reverses. Its really a great feeling to find a hole in one of the bestsellers.

I particularly love it when the classics come in.... Last week for instance, we got somewhere around 15 P.G Wodehouse books in one batch.

I like to be able to highlight books that are in the news. For instance, PARTING THE WATERS, by Taylor Branch who spoke in Bend on Saturday. I listen to NPR, and I'll grab a book by an author who's been interviewed, and place it on the front rack.

Anyway, it's a little microcosm of America, at least the part of America who reads.