For Valerie

All girls should have a poem
Written for them even if
we have to turn this God-damn world
upside down to do it.

-- Richard Brautigan

I picked up a copy of Brautigan's Rommel Drives On Deep Into Egypt at the Housing Works Café. Even though I already own a copy I bought it.

I have a lot of Brautigan books. He was one of my stepfather's favorite authors, and I inherited his collection. A lot of people start with Trout Fishing In America, but personally my favorite is In Watermelon Sugar. which I mentioned here, oh, seven years ago.

So there was Rommel, on the 50 cent rack. I always feel bad for good books that end up on the cheap shelf in used book stores. Sometimes I buy them just to find them a good home.

The last time this happened, it was A River Runs Through It, on the dollar shelf at Housing Works. I took it out and (for some reason unknown to me) began to riffle the pages. Somewhere in Montana, tucked between the pages, were five $20 bills.

I could have kept them. $1 for $100, what is that, 10,000% profit? But it was Housing Works. The bookstore's revenues help HIV+ people. Morally, the money really belonged to them, which I explained to the volunteer as I handed over the cash.

They didn't charge me for the book, though.

So if anyone wants a copy of A River Runs Through It or a book of Richard Brautigan poetry, just let me know. Mine were almost free.

It is also indexed under: New York City | Norman Maclean | Poetry | Richard Brautigan

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