Thursday, May 29, 2008

Learn Way Too Much About Your Neighbors from Their Yard-Sale Books

A few weekends ago, our subdivision had its semiannual neighboorhood-wide yard sale. I'm genetically incapable of ignoring such things, especially when the weather is nice. I decided to take a stroll and see what was on offer.

At one house they had several boxes of books that I decided to rifle through. As I read the titles, I grew more and more uncomfortable.

First there was Time Management For Dummies. Okay, we could all use a little help there.

Then there was Your Pregnancy Day by Day. Uh-oh, the bad time managers are having a baby.

Next I ran across Keeping the Spice in Your Marriage. Bad time management plus a new baby equals no time for romance.

Then the final blow: Surviving Separation and Divorce. Guess we should have seen that coming.

I had better luck in the next box: A copy of Dan Brown's Angels and Demons for 50 cents. Not my kind of book, but my associate editor once worked for Brown's agent, so I figured I'd better brush up. And so far, even though I see its flaws, I'm enjoying it.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I dunno - my last yard sale featured huge stacks of Complete Idiot's Guides. Er, wait. I was *giving away* Idiot's Guides. Yeah. (no violating that rule about selling).

Anyways... I hope the books I keep say more about me than the ones I give away. :-)

Krisan Matthews said...

I went to a bunch of garage sales last weekend, too. And I had the same exact thought: you can tell a lot about people by the books they are selling.

There were quite a few about infertility and pregnancy. But I was also able to find a couple of interesting books, like one on string theory and another on the victorian age.

I think the most interesting find was the Handbook of Clinical Dietetics by the American Dietetic Association (my employer) from 1981. I was tempted to buy it for 10 cents...but had to really think about what I would do with an outdated manual.

Also, glad to hear you're enjoying Angels and Demons. In my opinion, it's much better than DaVinci Code.

Anonymous said...

And I thought I was snoopy for checking out my neighbors' drinking habits as evidenced by the bottles in the recycling bucket.

Lori Cates Hand said...

Krisan--I finished it on the plane today, and it was really good! That final plot twist I totally didn't see coming.

Anon--Yeah, I always wonder what people will think about the contents of our recycling bin!