I considered blogging about this the first time it happened, but I was afraid of what you, dear reader, would think of me for browsing the sex section of the library sale. After two occurrences, though, I have an excuse: the sex section is obviously where the friends of the various Ventura County libraries keep the books by Wendell Berry!

Maybe the friends of the libraries know something I don't? I haven't actually gotten around to reading either of these books yet, after all. Maybe Mr. Berry is a racier writer than I imagined him to be. But if this were the case, those of you who are Berry fans (Berrians? Berryites?) might have mentioned it before now. I might have picked up his books sooner if you had.

Really, though, I'm at a loss as to how these particular books found their ways into that particular section of library sale. If it had been this title, there would at least be some rhyme or reason to it. But I can't even begin to do the mental gymnastics that would look at these covers and decide they belong in the "adult" section of the booksale.

Most likely someone picked up each book in some more appropriate section of the sale and then changed their minds about it and abandoned it by the sex books. But again, my imagination fails ... oh, wait. Whatever might distract a shopper in the sex section? I guess that makes sense ...

However they got there, I'm not complaining. Surely no other customer with an interest in the writings of Wendell Berry would think to look in the sex section. They might even be embarrassed to be caught browsing there. Which means that the books that I wanted to buy were still there waiting for me when I got there.

The moral of the story: more often than not, it's worth one's time to at least scan every section of books at the library sale / thrift store bookshelf.