lindsayliveshere.org

As much as I whined about the used book sale my office was holding, it really wasn’t bad. It fact it felt really really good sometimes to be doing physical work with a measurable result. Once the books were packed, or sorted, or displayed or sold — instant gratification.

Today was the last day, so we packed up the thousands of unsold books. Some were picked up by other nonprofits, but some had to be thrown away. We all hated this. It really really offended our literary hearts. But we had no means of transporting them or storing them, and the nonprofit we were planning to donate them to had backed out.

Amanda, our work-study student, actually went around saving all the copies of Shakespeare. We felt like the leftover books were all wounded birds caught in an oil slick. Shayna: “I tried to save as many as I could.”