I’ve written before about the ease with which folks in my town give me their special orders. I can be at the supermarket and get followed down an aisle. Or at the drugstore in the shampoo section when someone comes up next to me and starts talking about what book they need.
I really thought I had heard it all, until the other day. I was taking my usual morning walk as I try to before work starts. I find that some brisk exercise before the busy retail days of summer really helps me have a better day. So, I was walking and listening to my iPod rather loudly when a car kept honking. I’m used to people honking at me when I walk; it seems to be the standard country greeting. But this honking was insistent.
I took off my headphones and saw a car actually backing up on the road to pull even with me. The driver, a man named Jeff, shouted out the window. “Can you save me the new Bohjalian? I’ll be in later.” I was five minutes into a 40-minute walk. I used my phone to set a reminder for an hour later to save the book. This actually worked.
Three hours later the honking man strode in and got the last copy we had left. So, the combination of modern technology and old-fashioned honking turned into a hardcover sale. Not a bad way to exercise.