We have one privately owned store that sells new and some used books, but the rest are these damn chains. We have a great book fair here every year in the parking lot right outside of this building. Even though I ve been going for twenty-some years, we still come away with a hundred volumes each time. It s the great cultural event of the year, as far as I m concerned. Sometimes rare books pop up.
Books have amazing lives.
What brings first editions of Paul Valery s essays in French to a book fair in St. Louis, I don t know. It s great treasure hunting. One would think as a novelist your first love would be fiction. I don t read for enjoyment very much. I m pretty catholic about that though.