Free Books

The first floor of the School of Commerce was lined with about three dozen cardboard boxes, all filled with books that seemed to have fulfilled their roles in the curriculum, but did not garner enough demand to be re-sold and re-used. Or maybe there's a faculty member who is simply a nice person and likes to give people free books. Posted signs saying "Free books, take as many as you like." would suggest one or the other, but based on the selection, I would guess it was the former.
There were countless handbooks to accounting, four inches thick, and even analyses of past markets, global and domestic. Making our way swiftly through the boxes before our Japanese literature class upstairs, my friend from Taiwan picked up a book on English conversation, the curly fry in a basket of regular fries. I stuffed my bag with two books, one on the history of the American television between 1925-1941, and the other on advertising in Japan in the 1980's.

With mornings and nights regularly below 50 degrees Fahrenheit, I now have plenty of excuses to stay in, drink hot tea, study, and of course get a lot of extra-curricular reading done. There is also a lot of gathering, cooking, and baking to be done. We're still waiting for hints of the first snow this season, with simultaneous feelings of excitement and fear. Will the snow be as beautiful without a warm car to drive around in? Or will it be even more calming now that I don't have to drive around in it?