A Wonderful Find

I was traveling last week and as I often do, I ran out of reading material. I never get to read uninterrupted these days so I never know how many books to bring to tide me over for a three hour flight. I often abandon finished paperbacks, mind candy, if you will, in airport bathrooms, behind seat pockets and in hotel rooms. Rather than drag the books back home, I like the idea of a traveler finding these books and enjoying them. I think that all airports should install receptacles for used books like the receptacles we have for recycling your newspaper at the train stations.

In the Phoenix airport, I found myself in need of a book. To my surprise, I found a mini version of one of my favorite big name bookstores (rhymes with hoarders). I walked in and one of the clerks asked if I needed any recommendations. I declined and browsed around but nothing caught my eye. So I searched him out and we had ourselves a little book chat. Krakauer, love him, Kate Jacobs, like her. A shared disappointment in the latest hardcover Patricia Cornwall and the first two books by Sara Gruen (the horse ones, not the circus one), love for The Omnivore's Dilemma. He made a recommendation. Actually, three. One book was not in stock but I wrote it down on a scrap of paper probably never to be seen again. I bought the other two recommendations.

I finished The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible by A.J. Jacobs on the plane. It was great; at times poignant, at times laugh-out-loud funny, at all times it was thoughtful and honest. I loved it. I'm about a third of the way through the other recommendation, Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Quest to Promote Peace....One School at a Time. I'm also enjoying this one. With this recommendation, the clerk begged me to pass along the book after I was done. He said that some books deserve to move on from person to person touching their lives and thoughts. I couldn't agree more. I am tempted to track him down even though I don't know his name because it is rare to find someone else with the rare talent to choose books for others, especially when those tastes in books align.

When I paid for the books, I recommended, There is No Me Without You by Melissa Faye Green. It has changed my life, and is one of the ways in which we were drawn to Ethiopia. I hope the airport bookstore clerk enjoys it and passes it on.