I sometimes sing the songs my father sang, odd folk songs. Today, as I did what needed to be done, I sang loudly. It was a good day for it. Temperatures were in the low teens, but it was sunny and there was no wind.

I’d planned on going riding, but I decided instead to give Pete an assist getting wood in the shed. He’d cut down two trees behind the goat pen and needed assistance getting the wood in a place where he could pick it up with the tractor and then load it into our wood truck.

I did this; then I set out some agility obstacles. I never got to do agility; instead, I went back up to the woodshed where Pete was using the splitter and splitting wood, which he then tossed into the shed. I removed the rest of the wood in the truck. Pete went to get the remainder of the logs. I split the wood that I’d just gotten out of the truck. This took until close to 1:00 p.m.

Our plan, which we followed through on, was to go to Anchorage, to the public library, and see if they had any post sale books. We saw, as we were pulling into the parking lot, many readers loading bags of books into their vehicles. It was close to 4:00 p.m., the end of the sale time, and still readers were purchasing books, which on Sunday were half price.

We followed a handful of people going in, and we went down a long hallway. We told a woman sitting next to a table and passing out purchase forms who we were and what we were doing. She was extremely friendly and said to continue into the room and talk to Mary.

The corridor opened up into a basement room filled with books and people. It was a scene of controlled mayhem. There were dozens of library personnel, all in various places. Their job was to assist patrons in purchasing books.

Pete and I talked for some time to a woman named Anne, who took a BLBP bookmark and said that she’d get back to us about our taking surplus books. She seemed sincere and was quite interested in our project. I was disappointed in that we did not get to take any books, but I could see that this would have been near impossible. There were hundreds of books to be had, and still lots of buyers milling around.

Anne introduced me to Dave, who for 32 years was the chief book purchaser for the University of Alaska, Anchorage. It’s now his job to sort through and categorize the books that come into the library on a near daily basis.

You cannot tell me that people aren’t reading books.

What I saw also brought into question the future of libraries. People like to own books, maybe more than check them out. And, well, there is decidedly now an overabundance of books.

Resumed working on Shelf Life today, on the car ride to Anchorage.

Next: 302. 11/10/25: Remain in Light