Newsletter - February, 2003

The buying of books is an odd thing. I sauntered down Pacific Ave. one afternoon, stomach nicely filled with blackened salmon Caesar salad from a rare lunch out with my husband. The idea was to burn off one or two of the several hundred calories I'd just consumed.
I popped into Logos used books to look around...which is somewhat akin to an alcoholic popping into bar to look around. I thought I'd look for the Subtreasury of American Humor, which E.B. White had put together with his wife, Katharine. I had so far been unable to locate it at the library, due no doubted to an inability to spell subtreasurey. Computers are so picky!
Sometime later I emerged with only 4.5 calories burned (one does not walk 'briskly' in bookstores) and a fat volume of E.B. White's letters in hand. Quite pleased with my $3 purchase, I walked briskly up Pacific Ave. ignoring the nagging inner voice which pointed out that I already had a whole store full of books...not to even mention overflowing bookshelves in every room of the house.
I am enjoying the Letters of E.B. White tremendously. Half way into the book, I noticed that it is a signed, first edition. This could effectively shut up the nagging voice, but I doubt I'll sell the book--I'm enjoying it too much.

I remember another green and gold January ten years ago when I read THE HABIT OF BEING, collected letters of Flannery O'Connor. I filled the wading pool with warm water. Robert, a preschooler, splashed. I read. The dog snoozed, her black fur dusted with yellow pollen from the acacia trees. Letters make for a wonderful excursion into history, commerce and the intimacy of familial life. Let me know of any collection of letters you've enjoyed.

SALES at The Word Shop were down 10% last year; due no doubt to writing lengthy newsletters about books I have no intention of selling. However, between the "In the Spirit" column and revenue from writer's groups and classes, we ended up losing a thousand dollars less than we lost the year before. (See, I can juggle figures with the best of them. Soon we'll be selling stock.)

100 BEST SELLERS during the first two weeks of December were listed on a chart in the Christian Retailing magazine. I cut it out and made a display, bringing out Gene Edward's A TALE OF THREE KINGS, Josh Harris's I KISSED DATING GOOD-BY, Chapman's FIVE LOVE LANGUAGES, Wilkinson's PRAYER OF JABEZ, Packer's KNOWING GOD, Stormie Omartian's THE POWER OF A PRAYING PARENT...I would have added Lewis' MERE CHRISTIANITY and SCREWTAPE LETTERS, but we sold them. Amazing how those two books abide on the lists.
Malinda, our newest Tuesday volunteer, brought in the Afghanistan captive's story PRISONERS OF HOPE, which she bought a few months ago, shared with a friend and is now returning for some lucky person, who will get a $20 book for $8. I also have promises from Edith that ABRAHAM; A JOURNEY TO THE HEART OF THREE FAITHS by Feiler will soon arrive. I wonder how many times we've resold a single book.

Eldridge's WILD AT HEART would be on the Best Seller display if it weren't on my coffee table and already promised to Rosemarie. After last month's newsletter, Dave wrote: "On that Wild at Heart thing: for a male, a sure sign of a bad book about men is one that women like, helps them understand men and that they wish all men would read." I've read about twenty pages of it and after living with four males, I think it is a very DANGEROUS book...just encourages them. Should probably be banned.

Martin said that I should read MESSY SPIRITUALITY, "the perfect book for you." I get wary when people, especially priests, say things like that. But I never can resist at least finding out what they THINK is the perfect book for me. I enjoyed it. An easy evening's read, MESSY SPIRITUALITY is subtitled "God's Annoying love for Imperfect People." It has some great stories in it, like the one about the couple that couldn't afford a wedding. They were just going to do the civil service thing, but a group of friends gave them a surprise wedding. Written by Michael Yaconellie, the book will end up on the bottom shelf of our nonfiction by author section with the W's Y's and Z's. No one will ever see it there, so come on in and get it.

Speaking of bottom shelves, Joanne, our Tuesday evening volunteer, just moved and we have been trying to squeeze four boxes of her books into the system. The first box contained stacks of leadership and lay ministry books, so I culled through the lowly Community, Home Fellowships, Worship, and Sex sections, muttering "out with the old, in with the new." The result is there are a lot of books from those sections in our $1 sale boxes. You want to buy them before they get moved onto the free shelf outside because they get DIRTY and SUN WARPED out there.

Bill pulled JOSEPHEUS out of one of the boxes and absconded with it, but he'll probably bring it back if you want to put first dibs on it. Bill also suggested that we give a Bonus Book to anyone that orders a book from us. You can choose which section that we'll choose the Bonus Book from. (For a list of sections, send $10 to....) Sounded like a good idea to me, so we'll try it for a while. If we'd sold 100 Best Sellers in December, we could have afforded our sales tax in January.

My husband probably thinks MESSY CLOSETS is the perfect book for me...which reminds me of the very un-PC joke Robert just made up:

What do gays and monsters have in common? They both come out of closets.

There would be no society if living together depended upon understanding each other. -Eric Hoffer, philosopher and author (1902-1983)

Happy Valentine's Day!
Blessings,
Alliee +