I went to work today, if you want to call it that. Is it work if you don’t get paid? Your guess is as good as mine. I could not drive Fireball XL-5 – far too much snow blowing around. The storm rolled in last night and it has decided to stay. A good day to be inside, running my quasi bookstore.

I definitely attempted to ride Saturday’s wave of good energy. And I managed to catch a good wave and ride it safely to shore. The workday began with me assessing the situation. There were a few boxes of books in the makeshift sorting area – I moved them upstairs, into the classroom. I then sorted through a pallet of books that came in on Saturday, then found a few good titles.

Alys and Hrimmi

The pallet was in the front of the warehouse area, near the stairs leading to the upstairs area. It was far easier to sort and move books from this area than it was to move them from the former makeshift sorting area. And there were so few books compared to before that this took no time at all.

I next met with VCRS Director Steven Brown. I had typed up my meeting minutes, which I think kept us on track. The only bad news is that the upper floor space, where all the books are now, is going to be reclaimed by the education director on January 16th, which means that I have to have the books either distributed or boxed and ready to distribute on January 15th. I would give anything to have access to this space through the winter. I have my fingers crossed that this will happen.

Fortunately, Steve and I are on the same page when it comes to this project, in fact I don’t think that there was a single thing we disagreed with. Essentially, I am going to spend the next two weeks sorting and organizing and culling books, then push hard to get them distributed.

There will be Bright Lights Books committee meeting on Thursday, January 10th and another book and baked food sale in February.

After the meeting, I went back to work – I went through the upstairs novel section and pitched a fair number of books. I didn’t like doing this, but I must say that this did make the better books appear to be more prominent.

I understand this is an uphill battle because people aren’t reading. And in addition, they’re pitching books left and right. There is also now, an overall abundance of books, making my task even more difficult. However, I have now placed books in the hands of many, many grateful people. My best hit came near the end of the day when after talking with a staff member who was knitting, I said that I had the perfect book for her – and minutes later, gave her a wonderful book called American Knitting.

Day off tomorrow – I’ll take care of some administrative loose ends. Saturday I’ll return and continue to do what it appears that I now do so well.

Next: 358. 12/27/19: A Conversation with Raudhetta fra Alaskastadir