Audio By Carbonatix
I once actually put a moratorium on bringing books into the house. In all fairness to me, though, my boyfriend and I lived in a 300-square-foot apartment, and novellas and novels and short-story collections and true crime and biographies and classics were taking over every possible surface. Even the cat was considered potential roving storage.
But that was before I was older and wiser. Before I realized a moratorium simply meant we would surreptitiously bring in the newest Richard Russo or collection of Anne Fadiman’s essays and try to hide it among the Joyce Carol Oateses and Víctor Villaseñors already stacked bedside. Hoping, hoping the other wouldn’t notice.
Eventually we “forgot” about the moratorium, and we don’t speak of those dark days. We’ve embraced the scattered-academic-meets-the-crazy-cat-lady ethos that our new home has (our number of cats has expanded at about the same rate as our book collection). Now we just fight over whether to sort and store books according to size, color and stackability (me) or alphabetically, by genre (him).
And while the Tattered Cover normally agrees with his method of shelving (damn A-type personalities), its organization is likely to turn used-bookstore chaotic by the end of the LoDo Indoor Sidewalk Sale, which starts Thursday, January 15, on the third floor of the LoDo store and will be brimming with overstocks and remainders on sale for as little as a buck.
“There are truly all kinds of things, even CDs,” says Heather Duncan, director of marketing for the venerable bookseller. “There’s lot of kids’ stuff up there. It’s a lot of special type of books and single items, specials that people ordered and didn’t pick up, things we can’t return to publishers. It can really be a bonanza if you’re not looking for anything specific.”
But if you want first dibs on the best selections, you’d better join the TC’s new Give Back program, because today is open to members only. It costs nothing to sign up, and the bookstore will give 1 percent of every purchase you make to the charity of your choice.
If only organizing all your loot were that easy.
