Thousands of books have now passed through my hands, no exaggeration. I am lucky for not many readers have such a vast number of books to choose from. And I do have a bookstore of sorts, well, a book distribution center is a close second. We are at a time in history when books don’t sell. And there are so many of them on hand that it’s a huge effort to give them away. Imagine that.

I do have a hard time with the fact that I’m distributing and not writing. I see the works of those who put the pedal to the metal, coming out with adult and children’s books on a regular basis. I both admire and envy their tenacity.

Pete and Bill move in a load of books

I’m reminded in looking at the works of published authors, that our lives as humans are very short. We don’t have much time when it comes to writing consistently in differing styles and genres. We have to do what we do in a short period of time. And some do this amazingly well.

James Patterson is a good example. He has written adult fiction, a memoir, a few teen, and a few children’s books. He also co-authored a book with Bill Clinton. I have not seen or read the latter, and the truth be told, I don’t know if it would even be of interest to me.

Getting published is to a large extent, who you know, but at the same time it also requires considerable tenacity and stick-to-itness. I got a response from the Rasmuson Foundation – my grant proposal for Shelf Life was rejected. This, of course, makes me feel like the writing portion of my project isn’t all that great.

I am not in touch with my subconscious. But it very well could be that salvaging, sorting, cleaning, and categorizing books is, for me, a form of writing avoidance. For sure, it is.

I used to have this. I have this no more. Now that the project has moved, it is likely that I will have more time to write again. But at the same time, I’m going to soon begin working on the literacy programs. First and foremost, though, I am going to need to finish categorizing the nonfiction.

I estimate that I have a pallet of books to go through. I was having a hard time categorizing them; then tonight I figured out that the best way of going about this is to take the books out of boxes (that is the ones that are easily categorized) and leave the others in the boxes, while at the same time consolidating them. When I’m done with the first round, I’ll go back and make a second pass.

The Meeting House, our former distribution site, is now history. Pete and Robert cleared all the books out today and brought them over to the historic Eagle Hotel. So the only books that remain are some older, very large dictionaries.

Truly, today (in this respect) marked the end of an era.

Next: 179. 6/30/23: Last Day of June