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skyringThat was the title of an email from the darling AussiNisi, one of Canberra's leading BookCrossers. She had arranged to go and pick up a tonne of books from a lady, but was gripped by the grippe and would I be so very kind as to pick them up?
Well, I can't refuse Nisi anything, especially when it involves a tonne of free books, and friends, I spent the day dreaming. Pick out the plums for immediate consuption and have booksaplenty for releasing here and in Melbourne. Double park my bookshelves a it more with non-fiction and pile up Mount Toberead.
I was almost salivating by the time I reached the top floor of the walkup apartment block. Sweating certainly.
"Oh yes," said the lady, "I have the books, let me get them out for you."
I went downstairs again to the car and pulled out three shopping bags. The green ones that you buy at the supermarket so you aren't destroying the world with disposables. The sort that I always forget so I have to buy fresh ones...
There was a box of books waiting for me when I climbed the stairs again. A big box. Hernia box. "Wait, there's more!" promised the lady.
I started unpacking the books into my bag. Uh-oh. The covers show hunky men and gorgeous women smouldering at each other. It gets better as I go down, I tell myself, heaving out handfuls and packing them into my bags.
No, it doesn't, not unless you count John Grisham and Tom Clancy.
Lord, but there's a lot of money in romance. Just not on the second hand market. This woman must have spent a fortune on her collection and she wanted me to have it. I wasn't surprised, as she hauled out a third box, to hear that she'd had a sale the week before - ten cents a book! - and these were the ones that hadn't sold.
Perhaps I should have accepted her offer, but I hauled them away for free.
I thought a lot about AussiNisi. How I would kill her slowly and painfully. How I would bury her beneath a tonne of romance books.
I sweated up and down those dam' stairs and my little yellow car groaned each time I dumped another load in.
Sigh.
There's maybe a few books that are worth registering. And a few more that have titles that lend themselves to themed releases. But I suspect that I'm going to donate a lot of them to Lifeline. Honestly, I don't have the room to store bad books, Nor the time to register them.
I hadn't brought along a book to read while waiting in the travel agents. I figured I'd have a wide suggestion.
As it happened, there were two young ladies behind the counter when I walked in and no customers. I picked the eldest - someone who knows what's what in the travel industry is worth more to me than the prettiest smiling face selling package tours.
"Is Tessa P still working here?" I asked, hoping that my long time travel agent - a very pretty face indeed and a mind to match - was about. The fact that my email to her had bounced wasn't a good sign.
"No, she's moved on."
Oh well. My new travel agent is Berry, and she has a no-nonsense style I like. Gets the guff, translates it into possibilities and prices. She's interested in what I want, not what she can sell me off the rack. She remembered me from last time - twenty flights in twenty days and the more convoluted the routing the better. With window seats.
I could have booked the upcoming holiday all by myself. I may yet do so. But I suspect that Berry will be able to get better prices and an integrated package. Certainly the advertised specials to Hong Kong looked very good.
What I'm looking at now is to fly the four of us to Hong Kong. We'll have three or four days there, then pack the offspring back home while Kerri and I join the cruise ship on the homeward leg of a round the world cruise. Singapore, Sri Lanka, Suez Canal, Athens, Barcelona and Southampton, among others. Then ferry to Guernsey, over to France, a week there and a week or so in the UK before the London convention.
No US excursions on the way back, I'm afraid - my daughter's birthday is a few days after the con and I dare not miss it this time around.
Berry is going to get back to me with the fruits of her research. If she can get me a window cabin for less than what the website advertises, the deal's hers.
In the meantime, I've got the brochures to look at. Kerri and DD can go shopping, and DS and I will hang around the pool and drink beer.
I'll probably sleep most of the time. I'm going to have to work some long hours to pay for this little lot.
Well, I can't refuse Nisi anything, especially when it involves a tonne of free books, and friends, I spent the day dreaming. Pick out the plums for immediate consuption and have booksaplenty for releasing here and in Melbourne. Double park my bookshelves a it more with non-fiction and pile up Mount Toberead.
I was almost salivating by the time I reached the top floor of the walkup apartment block. Sweating certainly.
"Oh yes," said the lady, "I have the books, let me get them out for you."
I went downstairs again to the car and pulled out three shopping bags. The green ones that you buy at the supermarket so you aren't destroying the world with disposables. The sort that I always forget so I have to buy fresh ones...
There was a box of books waiting for me when I climbed the stairs again. A big box. Hernia box. "Wait, there's more!" promised the lady.
I started unpacking the books into my bag. Uh-oh. The covers show hunky men and gorgeous women smouldering at each other. It gets better as I go down, I tell myself, heaving out handfuls and packing them into my bags.
No, it doesn't, not unless you count John Grisham and Tom Clancy.
Lord, but there's a lot of money in romance. Just not on the second hand market. This woman must have spent a fortune on her collection and she wanted me to have it. I wasn't surprised, as she hauled out a third box, to hear that she'd had a sale the week before - ten cents a book! - and these were the ones that hadn't sold.
Perhaps I should have accepted her offer, but I hauled them away for free.
I thought a lot about AussiNisi. How I would kill her slowly and painfully. How I would bury her beneath a tonne of romance books.
I sweated up and down those dam' stairs and my little yellow car groaned each time I dumped another load in.
Sigh.
There's maybe a few books that are worth registering. And a few more that have titles that lend themselves to themed releases. But I suspect that I'm going to donate a lot of them to Lifeline. Honestly, I don't have the room to store bad books, Nor the time to register them.
I hadn't brought along a book to read while waiting in the travel agents. I figured I'd have a wide suggestion.
As it happened, there were two young ladies behind the counter when I walked in and no customers. I picked the eldest - someone who knows what's what in the travel industry is worth more to me than the prettiest smiling face selling package tours.
"Is Tessa P still working here?" I asked, hoping that my long time travel agent - a very pretty face indeed and a mind to match - was about. The fact that my email to her had bounced wasn't a good sign.
"No, she's moved on."
Oh well. My new travel agent is Berry, and she has a no-nonsense style I like. Gets the guff, translates it into possibilities and prices. She's interested in what I want, not what she can sell me off the rack. She remembered me from last time - twenty flights in twenty days and the more convoluted the routing the better. With window seats.
I could have booked the upcoming holiday all by myself. I may yet do so. But I suspect that Berry will be able to get better prices and an integrated package. Certainly the advertised specials to Hong Kong looked very good.
What I'm looking at now is to fly the four of us to Hong Kong. We'll have three or four days there, then pack the offspring back home while Kerri and I join the cruise ship on the homeward leg of a round the world cruise. Singapore, Sri Lanka, Suez Canal, Athens, Barcelona and Southampton, among others. Then ferry to Guernsey, over to France, a week there and a week or so in the UK before the London convention.
No US excursions on the way back, I'm afraid - my daughter's birthday is a few days after the con and I dare not miss it this time around.
Berry is going to get back to me with the fruits of her research. If she can get me a window cabin for less than what the website advertises, the deal's hers.
In the meantime, I've got the brochures to look at. Kerri and DD can go shopping, and DS and I will hang around the pool and drink beer.
I'll probably sleep most of the time. I'm going to have to work some long hours to pay for this little lot.
