I've been spending a lot of time at my secret book spot and scoring some sweet finds! Yesterday I scored the sweetest "find" possible!
Right after my mission, I worked in the office at Deseret Industries. There was a gentleman that came in about 2-3 times a day for books. He was always friendly with me. I would entertain his humor and laugh at his lil jokes. In talking with him, I came to find out that he did book reviews for Deseret Book. Once he offered me a possible book review job. I turned it down since I was soon leaving for school out of state. The funny thing about it, he wasn't Mormon. However, he had a respect for the LDS church, being Jewish.
Over the years, I'd randomly see him around town. We remembered each others' names and would exchange pleasantries with one another. Yesterday, as I was eating lunch with my best friend, he happened to approach us and soon joined our table for a few minutes. We talked about the DI, Utah and books. I expressed my rediscovered love of books & my secret book spots in town. He told me that he had somewhere much better than all those places combined--his personal collection. He said that he's been giving all my secret spots hundreds of books from his collection. He hasn't been able to do so lately because of his failing health. He gave me his card and said to put a list together of all the books I'm looking for. (He even offered for me to just come over and go through all his books...all of which I could have for free!!) I told him I was looking for a lot of the classics (Les Miserables, Anna Karenina, The Odyssey, Iliad), he said that he had them all. Also, if I happen to be looking for church books, he had those as well. Now I remember him telling me how Deseret Book use to send him books for him to read and review, so he read through them once and just kept them (or later donated them).
HELL FRIGGIN YEAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!
It was like a ginormous Christmas gift!! I AM SO FRIGGIN STOKED!!! TOTALLY HOOKED UP!!!
Oh I cannot wait!! My mind has been racing since our chance meeting!
What do I want??
Walt Whitman... Edgar Allan Poe... Leo Tolstoy....Robert Browning....Jane Austen....EVERYTHING!!
YES, PLEASE!!!
