I finally managed to get around to dealing with the results of The Purge today. St. Catharines has one really good used bookstore (with two locations) and one rather crummy one. I heaved my large box of books to the good one this afternoon.
Hannelore Headley is a really sweet and rather old lady who owns a couple of bookstores. She took about half an hour to go through my box of books and I took the time to peruse the original store. It’s in a little house on Queen Street, just a bit outside what’s considered the downtown part of St. Catharines. It is a very stereotypical used bookstore. Shelves, boxes, crates and heaps of books cover virtually every flat surface (including most of the floor and about half the steps). She sits quietly at a desk in what would probably be the living room of the house. She has a very kind voice and manner and is, I think, probably legally blind. She peers at book prices through a large magnifying glass and typically rounds down by some arbitrary amount when settling the final price.
I do most of my shopping at the downtown store on St. Paul Street. The fellow who is at the counter there most commonly when I am by is Peter. He has an encyclopaedic knowledge not only of the contents of the St. Paul Street store but also of the Queen Street store. The science fiction area of the downtown store reminds me very much of my parents’ basement. My tastes run along very similar paths to those of my dad (not really surprising and I certainly don’t mind) so I’ve picked out quite a few very familiar-looking paperbacks. My box of books from today has given me a $30 credit note good at both stores and I look forward to redeeming it.