Book Rooms Need Chairs - the Right Kind

We went to the Meals on Wheels Store tonight. Someone had taken the chairs and replaced them with some really nice padded metal chairs.

Who did that?

The purpose of a chair in a book room is so that someone can easily reach the lower shelves. So what kind of chair would it be?

1. It would be light enough to easily be moved around by anyone.
2. It would be small enough not to occupy much space.
3. It would be low enough to make it easy to see low shelves.

A child's school chair fits the bill. That is what we had.

We did some looking around and found the chairs. The right chairs.

Hopefully they will stay where they are.

David Sneed

According to Mark Twain What is a Banker?

Someone sent us the answer.

"A banker is someone who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining and wants it back the minute it starts to rain." Mark Twain

There are plenty of books at Meals on Wheels of quotes, quotes in context in novels, and humorous quotes. All books in the book room are 50 cents each.

David Sneed

Great Donation Today

Yesterday we got a donation of 645 quality books.

There is an assortment of fiction, classics, travel, mystery, westerns, and a whole variety of other things.

They were put out on the shelves last night.

9 of them will be in the boutique in the other building.

We welcome when folks donate their libraries. I am going through mine and making donations.

David Sneed

Why We Don't Have Discount Sales on Books

There are two reasons that we have no discount sales on books.

The first is that they are cheap enough as is. Fifty cents for some good reading. A bargain for sure.

The second reason comes from Samuel Johnson, who was frequently called Dr Johnson. He was an Englishman who lived from 1709 to 1785. He spent nine years writing A Dictionary of the English Language.  It was 150 years before it had an equal in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1905. Frequently there are copies of that one at Meals on Wheels.

Ready for the second reason? Dr Johnson once said "People seldom read a book which is given to them. The way to spread a work is to sell it at a low price."

You will have to agree that fifty cents is a low price. Any lower would be tantamount to giving them away.

Dr Johnson lived at 17 Gough Square in the City of London diagonally across a small park from Wine Office Court and Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese pub. This pub is referred to as the new one. The old one burned in 1667 and was then rebuilt. So the new one is only 345 years old. Many well known writers including Charles Dickens, G. K. Chesterton, Samuel Johnson, Oliver Goldsmith, Mark Twain, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Alfred Tennyson frequented this pub. I have been there several times and have also visited Samuel Johnson's home. Now as I sort books at Meals on Wheels I have Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese as something in common with the authors.

David Sneed

Mart Closed for Five Days

The Meals on Wheels Mart will be closed from Friday April 6 through Tuesday April 10.

Last night we went in and put out books that had come in from many places. There is quite a variety of new books.

I am puzzled about humor. Does no one in Cheyenne have a sense of humor? The collection of humor books keeps increasing.

There are some excellent biographies. Contemporary folks as well as many from the distant past. There is an autobiography of Maya Angelou.

There are some really good self-help and motivational books.

We are often asked about western novels. We now have plenty of them. It looks like they are not selling.

Wednesday. 10:00AM. Be there and get some good books!

David Sneed

Interesting Activity

Sunday night we brought in a lot of books and did some rearranging. Monday and Tuesday the store is not open. So the next time we went in was tonight.

We noted that many classics and romance novels had sold today. I thought that was interesting. Everything else was normal sales activity.

Today we have added a number of James Michener hardbacks.

There are a number of non-fictions about the Mafia that we got today. They are all together on one shelf.

There is now a writer's section. For a long time we never had any dictionaries. Now plenty are coming in and selling. To that section we have added books of quotations and how to write different things. Those books are also selling well.

David Sneed

Current Quote from Novelist Peter Carey

Every weekend the Financial Times has a full-page interview with someone. The page is called "Lunch with the FT." It could be anywhere in the world. The guest this week is ex-hippie Peter Carey who is a novelist. There is always a graphic of the cost of the lunch items and cost. This week lunch was at the Gramercy Tavern in New York City. The total cost for the two was $196.28 including tax and tip. The FT reporter had two glasses of wine at $12 each. The guest author had two glasses at $24.50 each. In a discussion of the environment Carey said in speaking about ecology:

"I can't see a happy end." he says looking around at New York's smart crowd - "but I like this wine."