Heavy Lifting

 

It makes me smile to think how what I did today is a lot like what I started out doing in the book business.  My first bookstore job was as a receiving clerk.  I would open boxes of books and check the contents against the packing lists, before sending them out to be shelved.

Another time I had a temporary position shipping book returns for an outdoor shop: checking publishers' returns policies and boxing up books to be returned.

Books and boxes are my destiny, it seems, even in the supposedly cerebral position of reference librarian.  I am responsible for returning books leased from Baker & Taylor, a book wholesaler.  We lease quantities of bestsellers from them to fill the initial demand on publication, and return them when they are no longer needed.  I remove them from the shelves and pack them up, marking them on an inventory list, and ship them back twice yearly.

1500+ books, 56 boxes, eight trips from the second floor to the garage.  Pickup is scheduled for Monday.