how did this get here?

the baron and the husband spent part of their weekend thrift shopping, visiting some of their favorite ones. they could think of nothing in particular that they needed, really, though the husband did have an eye out for halloween decorations. for her part, the baron really just wanted to get out of the house (it had been a rainy, cooped-up kind of weekend).

once they got to their first stop, though, the baron realized that she did want something: didion's 'the year of magical thinking', a book that the she had often (always!) seen at the thrift store. it happened that the two or three thrifts they intended to visit had excellent book sections, so the baron felt certain that she'd find her book.

but.

the afternoon turned out to be an education for her, an education about the books left to thrift stores. for example, she saw lots of copies of frey's 'a million little pieces', proving once and for all that oprah's reach is mighty and far. she also saw a number of 'what to expect when you're expecting', quite a few of the 'the da vinci code' (in hard back), and LOTS of harlequin romance novels.

what troubled her about the whole thing, though, was the appearance on the thrift store shelves of some of her favorite novels: 'the corrections' (in both soft and hard back), 'absalom, absalom', 'the color of water', 'a confederacy of dunces', 'moo', and even a hard cover copy of 'me talk pretty one day'. 'me talk pretty one day'!!! mccullers, rowling, morrison... they were all there together, abandoned, and the baron was sad.

the baron was left wondering, how did these books get here? and, to the husband, can we buy them? don't you know someone who wants a copy of 'harry potter and the sorcerer's stone'? alas, he did not... and all the books stayed. the baron said a little something under her breath, something for the books she loved, hoping that someone good would buy them.

as for her - there was no didion, not this time anyway. there was, however, thackeray, and 'vanity fair' is proving a good read so far.