Mike Schramm

Inside room 206B at the University of Chicago's Regenstein Library, a roomful of people silently pile and box books. Last Monday, the hard covers were $20, but today, the last day of the annual book sale, everything is free, and the customers are slowly stripping the room of the last few hundred tomes that are still unsold.

Everything is surprisingly quiet but for the shuffling of pages and stacking of texts. Just outside the room is a reference library, its shelves carefully labeled "Not Part of Sale" as protection against the horde.

"History and Politics" is almost gone. Surprisingly, there's quite a bit of "Literature" left, but a glance at the titles offers clues as to why these might be so boring they can't be given away: "The Partial Critics," "The Denatured Novel," even Norman Mailer's "The Prisoner of Sex." What are people buying? "Machine Embroidery," "Hemophilia and its Conditions," and "A Handbook of Marriage Therapy" are titles peeking out of boxes and hidden under blankets, to be carted away later.

Leaving, a tired student carrying an armful of aged paperbacks turns to the lone library employee the Reg has posted to guard a room full of free books. "We just walk out?" The seated salesman nods and sends him away with, "Have a good day. Thank you."

(2004-11-17)

Also by Mike Schramm

Bringing up Baby
Baby Wants Candy is renowned for improvising hour-long musicals based on an audience title suggestion
(2004-11-10)

Entrance polling
Since 1936, the Washington Redskins have successfully predicted the presidential election...
(2004-10-27)

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