Recollections

In the five years since I started this blog, this is the first time I've felt prompted to mention Free Comic Book Day. Available Saturday, May 4, 2013, one of this year's titles is a sampling of work by authors Jonathan Kellerman and Louis L'Amour. The free offering brings back a memory from my early years reading comics.

While growing up, I occasionally perused a secondhand bookstore in my neighborhood that also sold back issues of comic books. One summer around the time I was in junior high, the owner of the shop started up a conversation with me by saying I looked like someone who spent a lot of time at the library. He then asked if I would be willing to do some research for him by reading through the neighborhood library's microfiche catalog and writing down every entry for Louis L'Amour. The shop owner was a fan of L'Amour's westerns and said he would pay me for the legwork.

In all honesty, I actually did like going to the library on my own. But I felt self-conscious that I came across that way. So even though I had the time, I declined the offer. In retrospect, I wish I had said yes.