Providence In The Form Of A Used Book

Last night I was sitting at my gate at the airport, when I realized that I had left my book at home.

And ... I didn't have any other distractions on me. My cell phone doesn't have any games on it. I didn't bring my iPod or my laptop. I didn't even have a pad of paper. And not only did I have a flight to get through, but my flight was delayed so I had an hour and a half to kill before my flight.

Okay, I thought, I'll grab a book at the newsstand or something. I walked over to the newsstand, and suddenly came to a screeching halt. I had forgotten for a few seconds, but I can't buy a NEW book. I'm allowed to buy only used books.

I stood in front of the newsstand gazing at my forbidden fruit. Well, what about magazines? I've never really made an official ruling on magazines. But then I thought, you're already getting on an AIRPLANE, you want to push it by buying a magazine as well?

So, I decided to go for a walk in order to relieve my boredom. I decided that if I became desperate, I'd allow myself to buy a magazine, but not until I became desperate.

As I walked through the gates, cursing the airport for not being walking distance from a used bookstore, I remembered that last time I was here, one of the stores was advertising a program that offered you 50% of your money back if you bought a book from them, read it, and sold it back to them.

So... I thought getting more and more excited, it stands to reason that if they buy people's used books back, they must also SELL used boooks.

I hurried down to the store and sure enough, there was a shelf of "previously read books." The selection was paltry- only four or five books sat on the shelf, but I still managed to find a book that I've been meaning to read for a while.

So I paid for my book, walked back to my gate, and triumphantly settled down to read my book.

And it was good.