Monday 10/05/2026
First thing today was to go work at FOPAL. It’s the week before the sale weekend, so I had to clean up, make my shelves look neat etc. Joanne needed the car for an early lunch date with some friends, so I took the #21 bus down.
A few months back I changed my way of working. Have I written about this? The big job of a section manager is to process the books that have been sorted to my section. I look up each book in bookfinder.org, decide if it is likely to sell. If not, put it in a box for the bargain room. If so, decide what price to set on it. (Typically, half of what is being asked for that used book on Amazon.)
To do this, I used to pile all the books on a cart, take them to the sorting room where there is a row of computers that we can use. Each computer has a barcode scanner, so it is easy to enter the ISBN off the back of the book for quick lookup.
A few months back when I started getting really big donations, 5-10 boxes of books a week, I started a different way. I would take my own computer down and set up right by the pile of boxes at my section. But I needed a barcode scanner. I bought a cheap on on Amazon. A couple weeks back, it crapped out. So today I took a close look at the ones in the sorting room, because they have been working for years, used daily by different people. Noted make and model. Went home and found one in new condition for $25 on eBay and ordered it.
Anyway, worked 9-11 and got everything set up. The #21 was half an hour away so I treated myself to a Lyft ride home instead. Did some reading, did some proofing for the next issue of Scribble and Sketch, for which I am an official proof-reader.
At 4pm it was time for Poetry Out Loud. I read a couple from a book I bought on impulse when we were at Kepler’s last month, by Lindsay Rush. Funny.
Then at 5:30 we met downstairs and drove off to a local restaurant, Naschmarkt, over by California ave, for Joanne’s third dinner out for her birthday. Friday night with Jerry and Betty, then she was out with old friends last night, and tonight I got to buy her dinner. Don’t get used to it, kid. we’re back to splitting the check next week.
