The first day of book sales, there being two more, was yesterday. Friday’s book sale was from 12 noon to 5 pm. I made it to the Library a little after noon, and the small parking area beside the library was almost full. A couple of open spaces were marked as DO NOT PARK, and a couple were too small because the cars on each side were a little too close to each other. But this forced me into the last open space, second from the stairs, that go down to the Book Sale Entrance.

When I got to the entrance there were only two women, probably in their late 20s to early 30s standing in front of the entrance door. I asked if they were standing in line, and they said they were. I thought one of them said that only 15 persons were allowed inside at a time (fire regulations), but she may have said 50 persons, which is the number one of the staff later told me. But, it took a long time before we were allowed inside. In fact, I was able to read 4 books of the Bible on my phone before the next people were allowed in. And by that time, the line behind me had grown to maybe more than 20 persons.

Just outside the entrance there were some books labeled “Free.” While standing there I looked over some of the free book titles & authors. There was a book by Leon Uris, and one by Tom Clancy. Okay, maybe not Clancy, but another recognizable author’s name and to think that they were now “free.” Did Uris do “Exodus,” which was made into a movie? ***I just googled, and I did remember correctly, he did write “Exodus” which was made into a movie with Paul Newman. And google listed as one of his books, “Redemption,” which was the free book.

I walked inside carrying my large, light gray, empty tote bag. It is sturdily made, and I used it a few months ago when I was at that book sale.

There is a small room to the left as you walk down a short hallway to the main book room. This apparently is the “discount” book room. A sign said, “Books 25 cents each or 5 for a $1.” I knew from last time that most of the books were children’s books and that there was a small “cookbook” section. But, and I may have missed it last time, the cookbook section wasn’t just one small unit, but several, side by side. I only noticed the extra cookbooks after choosing several and then walking all the way around the children’s area and back to the first cookbook section I had noted. There were also foreign language books, but I didn’t see any German Language books. But then I noticed that there were more cookbooks, and even more beside those. I started looking through those. I happened to see a large book by John Besh. I knew this chef from a cooking show he had on a few years ago. He was family oriented, cooking with his children on the show, and I think that was the theme of this cookbook. He was also a former Marine, so I knew some of where he was coming from. *But, I haven’t seen his show on TV for quite a while and at some point I think I saw something about him having an affair with one of his staff. What a shame because that blew much of what he had to offer, a family man, chef, out of the water. *But then, I guess having an adulterous affair blows all of us, guilty of it, out of the water.

I didn’t pay for the books from the discount room, but was given a chit with a $2 amount on it. This I was to show to the staff in the larger book sale room, and then they could total all the books up and I could just pay once. So at 5 for $1, I must have had 10 books from the discount section.

I bought six more books in the other room, but they were only 50 cents each, and children’s books. So I ended up with a $5 price tag for 16 books. I took out a $10 bill and gave it to the clerk telling her to treat the extra as a donation. Still, that’s only about 63 cents a book, even with the donation.

But, I almost totally ignored my book buying parameters. I bought mostly cookbooks. And, most of the books that I bought were large in size, if not large in number of pages. Size does matter because I wanted to buy books to add to the various Local Community Book sites that I visit. Most of these are small cubicles on posts, some looking like little houses with glass front doors, so that you can see the books that people have left. The idea being, “Take a book, leave a book.” My routine is normally to take 2 and leave 2, but I don’t plan to read most of the books I take. I also take a picture of the unit, and the two books I have taken. That way I can try to not return a book to where I originally got it from. I am being a “book bee” and pollinating each little book stand with books from another stand elsewhere. So, I may take books from several locations in Fayetteville, and move them to locations in Sanford, Raleigh, Benson or even Florence, SC. **And there is an app that makes it easy to find locations of the units, and to record when you visited. Not all units are listed in the app. Not rogue units, just not in the list.

I did find a small Local Library next to a goat pen at an elementary school in Florence (Briggs Elementary). And may I say, the goats there were fine looking specimens. A pretty brown haired one was a little skittish at me taking it’s picture. The school also had a pretty garden area for children to learn about agriculture, etc.

I mentioned Benson because there is only one community library location there. I’ve visited twice and I may have gotten a copy of “Fig Pudding” both times. I was unfamiliar with this story, but it is a good family oriented tale, that even includes the death of one of the children in the family, and a messy, child’s foot in the communal fig pudding at a family to-do.

So the books need to “fit” in these little units. A large one might not be able to be squeezed in.

Not sure if I have written about this elsewhere, but back in October, I happened to see and take a book by Matthew Perry, the actor/comedian. I recognized his face on the cover and didn’t actually expect to read the book, but knew someone might. I don’t recall the exact title of his book, but part of the title was the equivalent of “and the Elephant in the Room,” to paraphrase his title. And looking online I quickly found that his elephant was a life long “drug/alcohol addiction.” Well, just a short time (less than a week) later I was looking online at a list of recently (this year) deceased celebrities and who should I see but the face of Matthew Perry. I then googled to see when he died, and surprise, he died three days after I had received his book. Now, I sort of felt an urge and obligation to try to read his book.

I’ve only gotten a page into the book, but “creepy” he starts off presenting his addiction, and saying something to the effect that he is surprised that he has lived this long. He easily could have died due to complications of his alcohol/drug abuse, but he hadn’t. So he dies alone in his hot tub. Maybe not ironic. You might say he died of natural causes. To which the joke about the bank robber who was shot and killed. It was stated that he died of natural causes. Well, being shot to death is a natural cause for a bank robber, isn’t it?

NOTE [ 11/30/23 ]: Well, I took the Matthew Perry book with me this morning when I went for scheduled maintenance for my 2018 Toyota Camry. I was in the Hendrick Toyota waiting room for almost 2.5 hours and much of that was spent reading his book. I’m now about 70 pages into the book. I’m thinking another more appropriate title might be, “Self Inflicted Wounds.” *Reading a book where people, places & things are mentioned is much more fun when you have a Handy connected to the Internet. When Perry mentions his tennis playing, you can go online and see him in his tennis garb. Or when he mentions a small group of actor friends, you can see each one of their faces, or even see each one of them with Matty. Or River Phoenix & his first movie, that too is also documented online. **I played a lot of tennis when I was younger, but I didn’t start playing until I was older, which meant I would never progress to a “world class” level. Much like Matty being a Canadian star, but just a good club player, when he reaches LA. Also, I realized from the book that the 1984 Summer Olympics were played in Los Angeles. I was in Wedowee/Lineville, Alabama that summer. And sometime that summer, tennis players started saying, “My bad,” when they made an error on the court. I always hated that phrase because it sounded “so dorky” to me. Almost as bad as, “I shit my pants.” No, dork, it’s “I shit in my pants.” Or the demise of adverbs that have “ly” appended to them as, “He walked quick into the room.” “quickly, suddenly, gingerly, etc.” [END NOTE]

Oh, I hadn’t thought about winter time and these small lending libraries until just a short time ago. I don’t want to put a book outside during the coldest time of the year. I don’t think that as many people would be walking and taking books during the winter. I think this is mainly a spring, summer & fall activity. But, I might be wrong.

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NOTE [ 11/18/23 ]: So, I went back to the Friends of the Library Book Sale again this morning. It started at 10 am, and I was a little late arriving, but found a space in the parking lot and there was no waiting line when I got to the door. Eric Hyman was sitting guard at the door and pushed it open to let me in. We talked briefly. I was surprised that he was not retired from FSU. He said something about being on partial retirement, and working a limited amount of time with classes, and some time off for his writings.

I asked about the new chancellor, but he said he didn’t see him.

I walked past the discount room and directly into the main book sales room. The criminal/murder mystery writers were directly in front down an isle, and they had the books organized by author, and there were a bunch of books by Michael Connelly. I picked up & picked out several books by Connelly, and saw that in addition to the Bosch novels, he also wrote the Lincoln Lawyer character. As I drove down the street today, I made a note to self that I had never read a Stephen King novel but only enjoyed the movies made from his novels. I say I’ve never read one of his novels, but I am haunted by the thought that I may have read something by him, and just don’t remember it. So, I’ve also not read a Michael Connelly novel, but have enjoyed the Bosch TV series and several episodes of the Lincoln Lawyer.

I have read “The Red Dragon” by Thomas Harris many years ago, while I was still working for the New River Baptist Association at the Hem of His Garment. A paperback copy of his novel was donated to the Hem, and Maribell Jarman brought it up and put it under our checkout counter. She sheepishly said to me that she wasn’t sure what to do with it. I took it home and read it, and as I did, I realized that I had already seen this story in the movie, “Manhunter.” By that time, the Iwo Jima Theater on New Bridge Street in Jacksonville offered $1 movies and “Manhunter” was one of those that I had seen. But, years prior, I had also watched “Planet of the Apes” and “The Godfather” at the Iwo Jima.

“Manhunter” was a movie that was ruined, by Michael Mann music. Well, if you had lived through the “Miami Vice” TV series, which reeked of Michael Mann, then listening to his music in “Manhunter” made it impossible not to keep thinking about Miami Vice. So “Manhunter” was based on Harris’ “Red Dragon.” And the story was later remade into a movie called “Red Dragon.”

There were a select few novels with $2 price tags, the rest of the hardback novels were only $1 each, and before I left, I also found a section of cookbooks also at $1. I only had one $2 book and the rest were $1 each, and I think I paid $15 total, so is that 14 books total? I got online and have a list of the Michael Connelly novels he has written. Not sure if I will try to collect them all, not to keep, but just to have put them all back out in the Community Libraries.

So what am I going to do with these books? I’m probably going to store them during the winter, and start leaving them at the little lending libraries beginning next Spring 2024. I hope to make it till then, but if not as with everything once you die, it won’t be my worry any longer.

NOTE [ 11/24/23 ]: Yesterday, before I headed up to the Mitchell’s, I took my red cart out to the car and took out a bunch of mail, trash and books that I had in the front seat and passenger-side floorboard. I was surprised by finding three books that I didn’t recall having. One was a book of things that a mother learned from her children and another was “Fig Pudding.”

All three of these books were youth/child oriented, and smaller in size, so they would fit easily in almost all of the little community libraries that I have visited. However, I look over against the wall from my easy chair and see the books I bought at the recent Cumberland County Library – Friends of the Library Book Sale. I bought very few child/youth oriented books. I bought a bunch of cookbooks, most of them not thick in size, but larger, and about 8 Michael Connelly books (both Bosch and Lincoln Lawyer), and one Harlan Coban book. I don’t even know the genre that Coban writes, but I’ve seen the advertising for a bunch of movies from books that he has written. So I consider Coban & Connelly in the same ilk as Stieg Larsson. I just googled on how to spell Stieg Larsson’s name, and see that he died of a heart attach in 2004 and his Millennium Trilogy was published after his death. Who knew? Not me.

Not directly related, but I was just reminded of the incestuous father/daughter relationship, and recall from several of the Scandinavian police/detective shows that Europeans find this a problem worthy of death or at least keeping in the family as a “dark” secret. I think from the Wallander series, no matter who is playing the character, there was at least one murder as the result of an incestuous father. *Oh, oh, I just thought of the first episode of “the Mentalist.” This came out in 2008 and in the first episode, there as a “prologue” not related to the rest of the show. We are introduced to the character of Patrick Jane, who is acting as a consultant to a state police unit. Jane wanders off from the rest of his unit, and finds himself in the kitchen/small dining area, of the victim’s home (a very nice home). He makes himself at home, fixing himself some hot tea and a sandwich. And then the mother walks into her kitchen and Jane and she introduce themselves. Jane begins to probe the mother. It is her daughter that has been found murdered, and the current suspect is a teenaged, Goth themed boy in black. But Jane begins to sense that the mother has doubts about what has happened. She may even suspect her husband, who comes into the kitchen and sees Jane and his wife talking a a small dining table. The husband is confrontive toward Jane, but instead of backing down, Jane brings himself to ask the father if he is responsible for his daughter’s death. The father is incensed at this accusation, and threatens to report Jane to his unit head (maybe higher). The wife/mother has gotten up from the table and disappeared briefly. But, she now returns to the room, with a gun. Jane backs away from the husband, the husband tries to defend himself from the guilty verdict his wife has obviously put upon him. But, in short order the wife puts about four bullets in her husband’s torso (the red splotches vibrant upon his crisp, white dress shirt) and he falls to the kitchen floor. Jane’s boss and the others in the unit arrive promptly in the kitchen having heard the gun fire. The wife drops her weapon, and Jane steps back and says to the police, “Honest, it’s not as bad as it looks.” And this little segment ends and the show goes briefly to a commercial break.

I recall the first time, as I was watching this, I thought to myself, “Now that’s funny, I’m going to like this show.” And, I did. I watched several seasons of the show, religiously, right up until we learned that the evil character of “Red John” has been killed, but it wasn’t actually Red John. This type of writing has happened in a few other shows that I have been watching intensely and as soon as it does, I lose all interest in that show. I don’t ever want to watch another episode because the writer could keep doing this, ad infinitum. If I had still been watching the TV show, Dallas, when they revealed that a whole season of the show had just been a dream, I would have been so angry that I wouldn’t have watched any episode after that, and would have felt cheated by the “dream” season.

So, in America an incestuous story only merits 10 minutes of an episode, which the Europeans can stretch into a story of several hours or even 5 or 6 episodes.

In the past ten years, I have watched a bunch of Scandinavian detective/police shows, filmed in a snow bound environment. Not sure why this is attractive. I wouldn’t want to live in a place where there were more days of the year with snow on the ground than not. *Although when I lived and went to school in Louisville, KY, I liked walking about in the snow for hours. If you have the right clothing and boots, you can enjoy yourself, even if you are not sledding down a hill, or doing other kid-type stuff. Northerners know how to thrive in snow. **Actually, Northerner’s can be just as big pussys in snow and ice, if you provide them with enough snow & ice, and maybe a little more cold wind and sleet than they are used to. Then, they whine and act just like Southerners do, when there is an inch of snow on the ground. If you don’t have the right equipment, or aren’t prepared for a good snow (and that is a relative term) we are all whiners & complainers. Whether we have a Southern drawl, or don’t know how to pronounce an “R” in words like park, bar or car. Is that, “paak da kah at da ba?”

I bought some snow boots, probably at Walmart. They seemed to be made of the same rubbery material that commercial fishermen wear. Although the color of boots for commercial fishermen has changed to white. They weren’t white when I was growing up. **Oh, and the style of oyster knife has changed since I was a child. Some oyster knives are still made, with a bulbous wooden handle, but the majority have a rubber/plastic handle, not as bulbous, and the knife blade may be almost stubby.

The snow boots had a thick insulation material, probably over a half inch thick. I mentioned being out in the snow for 3 hours. I did this, tromping about the snowy Southern Seminary campus in my snow boots & heavy coat. Probably also wearing several layers of shirts & pants. I recall my feet were actually sweating after several hours. My body heat was sufficient with the thick book insulation.

I used to like to listen to Garrison Keillor on the radio. He had a lengthy show that came on weekly. I think it may have been 90 minutes in length. Maybe not, but because there was so much entertaining material, the show seemed to last a long time. Well he had a segment of the show where he would start to tell a story. He painted beautiful, intricately designed scenes with his words, and he filled those scenes and rooms with interesting characters. But, one of the things he did extremely well was to start one story, and very quickly, without the audience even being aware of the segway, he would dive into another story and make that just as intricate as what he had started with. But, near the end of this segment, he would bring us all back to the original story and finish that tale. And, over and over, I would realize that the majority of that segment was filled not by the original story, but something entirely different. I would wonder how he got my mind sidetracked, so easily, and without being aware that the train I was riding on has switched to another track, even another destination for a while, until the conductor decides to switch us back to the main line.

NOTE [ 12/09/23 ]: I’ve continued to read the Matthew Perry memoir. *As I write this, I am watching “Leave the World Behind” a movie with Julia Roberts. One of her (the character she is playing) children was watching an episode of “Friends”. This was probably intentional because Matthew Perry and Julia Roberts dated for a brief while, as is recounted in his book.

The book is interesting because of several things, such as a movie that Matty did with Bruce Willis, “The Whole Nine Yards.” I recall seeing this movie, years ago but couldn’t have told you that Matthew Perry was in it. The two actors I recalled were Bruce Willis and Amanda Pete. But, reviewing it, I see that Natasha Henstridge was in it, and without rewatching the film, I think she became the love interest of Matty’s character, not recalling what happened to his wife. But, Bruce Willis’ character was a notorious “hit man” hiding out. *Perry mentions that this film was #1 for about three weeks, so he, like Michael J. Fox, had a #1 movie and a #1 TV show at the same time. But Matty also mentions that because of his alcohol/drug additions he “felt like shit” (my translation) during this time of success. And the irony, was that later, when the sequel, “The Whole Ten Yards” tanked, he didn’t feel that bad. **I don’t recall if he had hit rehab again before the sequel. ***I just rewatched “the Jackal” with Bruce Willis as a contract hitman and Richard Gere as his nemesis (1997). “The Whole Nine Yards” came out in 2000.

Now, I recall seeing Matthew Perry’s dad, the actor, on something in the past. It was either a TV show he was on or a commercial he had done. Several of the friends he mentions, his drinking buddies, all had faces that I recall seeing as actors. As I have said, either in writing or to someone, the memoir could just as well have been named, “Self Inflicted Wounds.” He made a bunch of money, and he spent a bunch of money, and fame & money didn’t make him happy, or fill his holes. His deal with God was something to the effect of, “You make me famous, and you can do whatever you want with me.” So, he knew God had honored one part of the contract, and he was going to have to live with the consequences.