T. asked how the book sales were going.
I looked up from my table. I said I seemed to have saturated the market.
We had met at the other café where I do business, when he had said my “Buy Bob’s Books” sign was too confusing. It should say “For Sale.”
I had offered to swap him a book for such a sign.
He had not availed himself of this opportunity.
He asked if I no longer went to the other café.
I said half the time I did.
He said he no longer did.
When he had been living in his van, he said, he had needed the café for Wi-Fi. Which meant he had to buy a coffee ($3), and then a pastry ($3) and, if he stayed for lunch, a sandwich ($6) and another coffee. But now he had a room in a house. He had a big screen TV. He never even went on his lap top.
And reading did not appear to factor into his equation.
2.
“I have never seen so many people stealing books, burning book. And this is Berkeley,” said the woman seated outside the café, a backpack under her poncho, shopping bags by her sides. “Mostly redheads.”
[Bob’s books are available from this very web site.]