A book or two
I haven't made much of the day each week I spend working in one of the local 'charity' shops. The charity raises funds for cancer research and also to provide palliative care. I work there because the shop is a very important part of this community, because it gets me out of the fun, it's good exercise and it's worthwhile. I'm not sure how worthwhile; we've not had the audited accounts sent to us and there are some grounds for concern about the financial stability of the charity, but in the mean time I'm willing to go along on the grounds that we at the very least facilitate a certain amount of recycling and provide various other low level social benefits to the people of this town.
In truth the goings-on behind the scenes are worthy of a blog in their own right. Some of the people I've come across, some of the situations I've found myself in during the 15 months or so I've been involved are almost incredible.
There are few benefits beyond a warm inner glow; we're not paid, we get to spend our day sifting through other people's crap, everyone bitches at everyone else, the customers think because we didn't have to pay for the stock they shouldn't have to pay either. And so on and so on.
Still, from time to time something turns up in a box or bag of donations that just has to be 'had'. Paid for of course, but there is a certain amount of 'first dibs'.
Last Friday I picked up a book called Mathematics From the Birth of Numbers by Jan Gullberg. It is 1038 pages (mercifully soft cover) of Numbers: Combinations, Symbolic Logic, Sequences, Equations, Functions, Elementary Geometry, Trigonometry, Analytic Geometry, Matrices, Differential and Integral Calculus - and on and on. It was love at first sight. It is here, on my lap at the moment, and usually has pride of place on my desk just within my line of sight when it isn't actually open.
I spend very little time on the books these days. I spent some time years ago working for a second hand book dealer; I have some knowledge of the market, the lingo, book valuation. I spent too much time on the books and got asked to cut back my involvement by some of the shop founders. Someone else takes care of them now. But on Fridays, the day I still go in, I like to have a nose about among the books and I'm still the one who sorts out any actually donated on the Friday.
A couple of Fridays ago another but very, very different book caught my eye. The experience was a bit like one of those car accident moments, where you can't help but slow down and take a look though you know you really ought no.
The book (by someone calling himself Selwyn Hughes) is titled Marriage As God Intended. And it isn't meant as a joke, either. It certainly isn't funny. It was going in the rubbish bin anyway so I brought it home. Tonight flipping through it I realise its even worse than I'd first thought. Apparently everything would have been alright if I'd only let him be in charge. Oh well. There's still the rubbish bin for it.
In truth the goings-on behind the scenes are worthy of a blog in their own right. Some of the people I've come across, some of the situations I've found myself in during the 15 months or so I've been involved are almost incredible.
There are few benefits beyond a warm inner glow; we're not paid, we get to spend our day sifting through other people's crap, everyone bitches at everyone else, the customers think because we didn't have to pay for the stock they shouldn't have to pay either. And so on and so on.
Still, from time to time something turns up in a box or bag of donations that just has to be 'had'. Paid for of course, but there is a certain amount of 'first dibs'.
Last Friday I picked up a book called Mathematics From the Birth of Numbers by Jan Gullberg. It is 1038 pages (mercifully soft cover) of Numbers: Combinations, Symbolic Logic, Sequences, Equations, Functions, Elementary Geometry, Trigonometry, Analytic Geometry, Matrices, Differential and Integral Calculus - and on and on. It was love at first sight. It is here, on my lap at the moment, and usually has pride of place on my desk just within my line of sight when it isn't actually open.
I spend very little time on the books these days. I spent some time years ago working for a second hand book dealer; I have some knowledge of the market, the lingo, book valuation. I spent too much time on the books and got asked to cut back my involvement by some of the shop founders. Someone else takes care of them now. But on Fridays, the day I still go in, I like to have a nose about among the books and I'm still the one who sorts out any actually donated on the Friday.
A couple of Fridays ago another but very, very different book caught my eye. The experience was a bit like one of those car accident moments, where you can't help but slow down and take a look though you know you really ought no.
The book (by someone calling himself Selwyn Hughes) is titled Marriage As God Intended. And it isn't meant as a joke, either. It certainly isn't funny. It was going in the rubbish bin anyway so I brought it home. Tonight flipping through it I realise its even worse than I'd first thought. Apparently everything would have been alright if I'd only let him be in charge. Oh well. There's still the rubbish bin for it.
posted by Enyo @ 11:13 pm
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