Used Books

It was snowing big thick flakes when Justin and I left the campus center to make the walk to the rare-and-used book store, DJ Ernst, on Market Street. It’s a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon, scanning the old cracked spines to see what jumps out at you. Because you never know what you’ll find, and as cliché as that sounds, it’s true. I picked up John Updike’s Terrorist, Graham Greene’s The Power and The Glory, Stephen Crane’s Red Badge of Courage, and an autobiography of the Dalai Lama.

Justin was broke, and all I had was a dollar in my wallet and some quarters in my pocket, but we were still able to walk out with ten 50-cent paperbacks between the two of us.

We came in about twenty minutes till closing time, but the store owner had no problem chatting with me about books while Justin made his final selections. The owner has always struck me as a person who just genuinely loves books. He reads and has read many of the books that pass through his store.

When Justin had his third and final book in hand, the owner rang up the purchase on an antique cash register, tapping its metal keys, rattling it like a typewriter.