Left behind

Dear You,

Without a map, I'm easily lost. So I cannot say as I write this exactly where I was when I left the little restaurant where I was having lunch and spotted a rare books store nearby. At any rate, there I was, looking down through the glass at not just one, but three!, first editions of Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms. Since they could not be handled without the shop owner's giving me access, I cannot say for certain, but I think the date they were created was 1925. I'll check that later. What I can say is that one could have been mine . . . for four thousand dollars.

I looked around the shop and saw that it was given almost entirely to first editions -- and prices everywhere made me think that these books were -- if not completely out of reach -- at least unreasonable. That is to say, they didn't fit into my value system. Oh, there was room on my MasterCard (I don't leave home, let alone go across the country without that!). It's just that, for me, books are indispensible, but I tend to purchase them at low costs and then leave them for others.

Literally. I joined BookCrossing (go ahead -- google it). I register my books, read them, and then (most often, anyway) leave them in public places for others to find and enjoy . . . and I hope, pass them along. There's a little slip inside each of my "remainders" that will lead the finder to some knowledge of who I am, if they have computer access anyway.

As to the book I left behind in that shop yesterday, I don't know who bought it originally -- perhaps for 25 cents? -- nor through whose hands it passed before being acquired and placed under glass. I do wonder what it is really worth. And it's not as if I haven't read it before.