It was inevitable. The book project has become, like a bookstore, a huge responsibility. When I began taking books from the local recycling center, I envisioned the project to be peripatetic. That is to say, one in which I’d distribute books in small increments, to a small audience.

I did not see the project as being grant or board driven. In fact, it was then really simple. My Fairbanks to Valdez bike trip was a prototype. I, who was on the move, passed out books and talked books to those I met along the way.

The sheer number of good books that I soon found myself dealing with made things quite complicated. If I had kept the numbers down, it would have remained a peripatetic entity. When the numbers went up, this was no longer a possibility. And now, there’s no turning back.

We do have a board, and we are a 501(c)3. We also have overhead; in fact, we have a lease. We’ve never refused any books, and the percentage that we’ve discarded is actually pretty low.

Alys at end of shelves

Today a woman came to the Meeting House and remained in her car as I went to check the year that some World Books were published. I emerged from the book cave and told her that it was 1988. She was then no longer interested in acquiring these books. I told Rebekah, who is a BLBP Board Member that I was going to have the books shredded. She said no, no, no, no, she’d take the encyclopedias. One thought was that she could use them in art projects.

So it is hard to part company with books for sometimes their appreciative reader emerges (as it did in this case) months later.

So, in summation, the BLBP is now rooted. We had some roots when we were at the Meeting House but pulled them up, put them down, and further extended them when we moved to the Historic Eagle Motel.

Today I looked around our new space and I thought – we have here the makings of a bookstore. Oh oh, I thought. Talk about the potential for being tied down. . .

We do have to find a marketer, which is someone who knows how we might set up shop. For there are books on hand that we have that are very valuable. Maybe this person might also give us an assist with online marketing.

Slowly but surely, I am boxing up the children’s books – and tomorrow I will get the second batch up on the shelves. I also put the paperback fiction and nonfiction in bins.

Next week, Pete and Robert are going to build more book shelves. And I will shelve the books.

So much for the peripatetic project. And so much for the peripatetic lifestyle.

I sometimes wish that I could articulate the above to those who in the beginning were so supportive of my efforts. Maybe it’s a good thing that we can’t go back in time.

Next: 164. 6/15/23: Overwhelmed