Peripatetic, defined means (generally) living in places for short periods of time, as in she has a very peripatetic lifestyle. I think it’s okay to expand upon a definition – so the definition can also be looked at in relation to the Bright Lights Book Project. I at first envisioned the BLBP as being peripatetic, in that we had no shop, and were just giving out books. Then I began thinking that we were not peripatetic because we had a set location from which we distributed books. This was first the local recycling center, then it was The Meeting House/Church of the Covenant, and now it’s the former banquet room of the Eagle Hotel

Eagle Hotel

Today I resumed thinking that we are indeed peripatetic. This came to me as I dropped off books at Fireside Books. Readers purchase books from Fireside. We don’t sell books. We have a place in which we take in, clean, categorize, sort, stamp, shelf books. But wait, we don’t have a shop per say. Sometimes readers come in and select books. But it’s from this site that we distribute books. Out go the books, on a daily basis.

Two days ago, I took several bins of books over to the Palmer Senior Center, some of which were Spanish/English books. Yesterday a woman made arrangements to take Spanish/English books with her to Belize. And today my friend Michele Hemling took two boxes of Russian books to a friend of hers who is Russian and has other Russian friends. In essence, the BLBP was sending books back out into the world, into the hands of appreciative readers.

And our distributors put books on shelves today. Bill, Pete, and I stocked the shelves at Vagabond Blues, Turkey Red, and the Valley Hotel. And Robert took books to The Happy Hopper, Jitters, and Kaladi Brothers.

Tomorrow, Michele Parkhurst, who is the co-owner of Kaladi Brothers, is going to take books with her to Anchorage. Kaladi Brothers has a café and now bookcases. And she needs books for a board she is on. It’s members assist those supporting those who have in one way or another been traumatized.

Tonight, a teacher in Nikolai emailed me; he wants to do a book exchange. He’ll send us books and we’ll send him books. We might go to Merrill Field in Anchorage (where the small planes land) and out there on the tarmac, swap books.

So, considerable movement is required on the part of those who are involved in this project. We don’t have shopkeepers; rather, we have books in multiple locations.

Admittedly, I do enjoy the shop keeping aspect of this project. Those who do spend time in the former banquet room of the Eagle Hotel talk books and about other interesting things. And this is the non-peripatetic aspect of the BLBP. Ya gotta have baseball field if you want the players to take the game seriously.

We are on the move. Onward and upward.

Next: 343. 12/15/23:Visionary