Still learning

I am still learning. I guess it is not a surprise. Getting a MBA takes some years so learning on this job is probably similar.  I told Petr, a friend who was helping at the bookstore last weekend, that if there was time, I would certainly take detailed notes between customers to record all the conversations and experiences. So many interesting people. So many intriguing remarks. One might think people would talk to me about books. But they tend to talk about their lives and travel and their community and their dreams. Perhaps that makes sense.  After all isn’t that what books are really all about anyway? Last weekend we had the bookstore and a Czech friend’s handmade jewelry set up at the Down from the Mountain Festival just north of Eureka. There was the man who stopped and told us what he had put in a suitcase in case the forest fire reached his house. I smiled when he said he had packed a book (he bought “Undaunted Courage”). And then the tall guy with the Matis tattoo told about the months he spent in India and then bought a Dervla Murphy book.  A woman made an extra trip to her car to get money to buy four books including “Walden”.  One man while talking with Petr said although he doesn’t read that he would give the cost of a book because he liked the conversation so much.  And I realized another advantages of a traveling bookstore.  People don’t have to come into a building. There we are sitting or standing next to the van willing to strike up a conversation with whoever happens by. Obviously I am still trying to get a handle on this business paradigm.

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