Thoughts from a store opening

Over 600 cartons of books opened in just about two working days. Most retained for the store, some for the self, and the rest put back in storage. Twelve hours of manual labour each day, opening cartons, sorting through them, and carrying them when needed. Carefully watching three managers argue the logic of rack alignment into its correct places, an empty green and yellow space metamorphosing into a book section. Co-ordinating with the main store for difficult customer orders and placating other customers who should have been called at least two days ago. Kicking myself for not seeing ahead enough.

Two more days of frenetic unpacking, categorization, rack alignment, and racking await my need to learn while for the last two I have been too exhausted each night to do anything to do much more than eat, soak my feet in hot water, and surrender to the dull ache in the bones. But you know the best part of each day? It's been a crash course in book categorization, especially of the categories I hate - self-help and management/business. The holes in my grasp on things seem smaller now.

Finding Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis at forty bucks when you know the full price is 440/- just makes all the tiredness even more worthwhile! It's the same edition, you know, in as decent shape. I'm going to post a whole list of books that I've managed to get for myself. I will endeavour - I promise you - not to gloat too much.