Sold one SCHIZ.
The buyer was L, one of the café’s semi-regulars, previously characterized here by denture gaps and chin foliage density. We’d had a couple of non-tease generating conversations in the past, but since I had been between creative projects for over 16-hours, I was open to the diversion. Taking note of the cover, he asked if I had been in San Francisco in the ‘80s. I said, “The ‘70s,” and we settled into a discussion of Melvin Belli, and I gave him a break on the price.
In other news…
1.) Received two SASEs at my POB for copies of the forthcoming LOLLIPOP. One was from a college friend (I think the first from that stage of my life) and one from a lawyer-pal (Ditto.) The latter came with a nice check. “In support of the arts,” he said.
Another friend says he “can’t handle” the SASE business and wants his copy when we see each other next and a former client/friend asked (again) for the price and my address.
2.) For purposes of these “Adventures,” I write as if I sell my books at only one café, but, in truth, there are two. When the first changed hands a few years ago, the new owner, a Francophile from Indonesia, decided to re-do it – to the displeasure of the regular customers – in his idea of a Parisian Belle Epoque boite. One idea was to foster its artistic image by devoting two shelves to books by patrons. Two fellows I know put up two; one fellow I know by sight put up three; so did a fellow I had never heard of. I contributed BEST RIDE. The other morning, I happened to glance at the shelves, and it was GONE. Had one of my fellow scribblers bumped me for shelf space? Had I alone had a secret (cheapskate) reader?
The other café has a Free Bookcase. (Take one; leave one.) During Covid selections have grown scanty. Two Pritikin cookbooks. A 1994 Writers Market. A 20-year=old Best Inns of Northern California. Some crime novels. I donated a coffee-stained copy of EEG and a work by one of my professors at SF State that were there for months and months, despite the paucity of competition.) Tuesday, having learned it had audience appeal, I deposited a BEST RIDE with my web-site identifying card, hoping it would be a loss-leader. It remained Wednesday but by Saturday – my next business day there – it was gone.
I think I will replace it. I am undecided about the filched first one.
BOB’s BOOKS are available at www,theboblevin.com. A copy of LOLLIPOP: a VISTA lawyer in Chicago: Sept. 1967 – Sept, 1968, can be ordered by sending an SASE ($2.89) to POB 9492 Berkeley 94709.
So many Bob Levins on the Internet; I'm the Bob Levin who writes.