Bookstore Mysticism

I have had a very unusual customer this evening. I was assigned to the info desk during the 6:30 to 10:30 shift. This means I look up books on the computer, or retrieve books that a customer might have on hold. The gentleman in question looked to be in his late 60s, bespectacled, with thinning wisps of white hair. He wore a powder blue sweater and a matching fanny pack.

He asked me to get some books that were on hold for him; we keep these behind the desk. I retrieved them and he looked them over, commenting briefly on each. Presently he produced from his fanny pack a crumpled plastic bag from which he drew some scraps of paper, perhaps ten in all. Each was quite covered in writing, in every color of ink, as though these notes had been long in gestation. Some looked yellowed with age.

Selecting a sheet, he read off the title of a book, which I looked up for him on the computer. He then read off another title. I looked it up. Then another. Most customers will ask about one or two titles, but this fellow seemed to be settling in for the long haul. The books ranged from new-agey spirituality to economics. One was called "The Wheel of Time" and another was by Gore Vidal. As he leaned over the counter, I noticed that his glasses were missing the right temple*, so that they waved precariously over his nose.

Another customer or two were waiting behind him by now. He chose this moment to remove a leather wallet from his fanny pack, from which he drew a small bundle of string. He unraveled it and I observed a metal washer dangling from a length of brown cord.

"Have you ever seen a pendulum?" he asked. He began to delicately dangle this device over his notes, as though attempting to divine which book he might ask about next. I feel that I must emphasize the utter gravity and lack of irony he displayed during this ritual.

At this point I figured I should get to the people behind him in line. There were only one or two, and by the time I had finished he seemed to have made up his mind. He asked me about another title, and another. And another. Eventually, he began to return to books he had asked me about before, just in case some had come back in stock in the intervening minutes. By and by I noticed that this fellow had been standing at the desk for over twenty minutes. At length he left to seek out his books.

As I write this he is over at one of the book tables, waving his pendulum over the stacks of new releases.

P.S. He has returned to the desk and is reading me quotes from "The Wheel of Time".


* Noun. either of the sidepieces of a pair of eyeglasses extending back above and often around the ears. (I had to look this up)