I volunteer once a week at a nonprofit organization called "Schoolhouse Supplies." One of the significant corporate contributors to "Schoolhouse Supplies" is Powell's Books. Powell's, for the unfamiliar, is not only the biggest bookstore in Portland but the biggest in the entire COUNTRY. Their overwhelming downtown location is so large one must use a map inside it.
Every so often Powell's gets a gigantic cardboard box and fills it with all the books they don't want in their inventory anymore, then sends the whole thing to "Schoolhouse Supplies." I don't mean just children's material -- Powell's sends us EVERY book they can't sell, whether it's appropriate for children or not. Since we can't do anything with most of it, the bins rest in the back of the store and their contents are free for employees and volunteers.
You might be wondering. Just how bad does a book have to be if the largest bookstore in the country doesn't want it? You're about to find out....II!
This time, I was given some pretty large clues. Many of the books in the latest box still had Post-Its on them detailing why said books should be tossed.
This note says "Either move
this book to the right area or throw it away."
The circumstances say "OK. I only feel like doing one of
those things."
There was one that I took purely because of its note and for no other reason.
It really does, but from the odorous standpoint. If you've ever been to Powell's, you know they like to stick notes on the shelves and sometimes even into the books, making cutesy remarks and casual recommendations. This one was intended as a warning. Wherever this book was before Powell's, it was never touched for fifty years. It's got one of the strongest smells of mustiness inside that I've ever smelt.
I've learned a lot so far from Powell's throwaways...a lot of which I can never un-learn. See what you make of this....
A.A. Milne? The Pooh fella? He
once wrote DARK MURDER NOVELS?
I had no idea. What would Christopher Robin say?
Actually, forget Christopher Robin -- what would Maeby say if she found out Tobias Funke was writing books about macho American ninja people?