We don't appreciate being distracted, when we're perusing books. But the woman seemed to insist, wanting to know what kind of books, exactly, we were looking for. And the truth is, it's almost any kind of books, excluding romantic novels, that attract us; biographies, history, novels, detective-crime novels, adventure, almost anything, well written, will do to compel our attention.

And since we happened to be perusing shelved books, arranged by author and genre neatly enough displayed, at the Salvation Army thrift shop, one can never tell what one can come across. It was a lucky day for us, as it happens. My husband was able to acquire quite a few mint condition Tony Hillerman crime novels which he enjoys reading, on this occasion, and one translated from Spanish to English by an author new to him, but of whom he had read.

The woman who kept insisting she could assist us, informed us that she was a former librarian, with a degree in library science, and she did, in fact, know her authors. A very pleasant woman, now employed with the Salvation Army, and eager to assist her clients. She it was who led me to Khaled Hosseini's Thousand Splendid Suns, and promised to hold for me a copy of his celebrated The Kite Runner, if one showed up again.

I was also able to pick up a copy of Michael Ondaatje's Anile's Ghost, and one of A.S. Byatt's Possession. All of which will take their turn on our home library shelves and eventually make it into our reading grasp, soon as we've finished with those we're currently reading.

For me, that's Peter Newman's There Be Dragons, a tome of a book, following which completion, next in line is Norman Doidge's The Brain That Changes Itself, a gift for my 75th birthday by our youngest son.