Today was my last day working at a Giant Chain Bookstore.

no wait let me back up. I love books. I love books so much. i would marry books, but it is illegal and i would die of papercuts. Books are teachers and friends. and they open, so heck! i made paper fortunes on the computer. i tried to make them specific enough to be shockingly insightful, but vague enough to apply to anyone who might open the book. i stuck them in my back pocket and smuggled them into books over the course of my shift. i chose books that i loved, or had meant something to me, on the theory that someone who reads those books would be excited and charmed by a book fortune, and also, you know, kind of reaching out to kindred spirits. to whit:

2 copies of V by Thomas Pynchon, which i was bemused by at 18 and keep meaning to re-read
7 copies of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, which is one of the best books ever. i made a point of not looking, but one of the fortunes said "that shirt looks nice on you," which i thought was accurate.
1 copy of 9 stories by Salinger. because Salinger is like the uncle no one in your family really likes, but who showed you a birds nest when you were seven.
1 copy of Shalimar the Clown by Salman Rushdie, which i later sold to a woman who needed something to read on her break. if she sticks with it, around page 128 we will meet again, but with a really long time delay like when you're talking to someone on the space station.
1 copy of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, because everyone says it's good
1 copy of The Great Perhaps by Joe Meno, because they didn't have a copy of Boy Detective Fails which is a great book
3 copies of Love in the Time of Cholera

...among others.

i'd like to do this project again. there are so many possibilities yet unplumbed! but now it's time to paint.