$217.97.
Two hundred and seventeen dollars and ninety-seven cents, give or take a few dollars either way.
That's how much it would have cost to purchase the stack of books I picked up for free yesterday at the UWO English Department's main office. Indeed, that's how much this particular stack of books will cost the undergrad students taking the full-year course for which I'll be TA-ing. As perks go, "free books" is pretty good, no? (To those of you out there who are intimately familiar with the various downsides to being a TA: for now, please just nod your head and smile and agree heartily with me that "free books" is indeed pretty good. Let me have my little moment -- we'll get to the other stuff soon enough, I imagine.)
Free books!
And now for some irony (Alanis Morissette-style): Remember how much time I spent over the last year thinning out my personal library, deciding (Toy Story Claw-style) who will go and who will stay? Three of the titles I decided should go appear in the free stack! That's right, 30% of the free stack is composed of books I tried to leave behind. It's like I put them in the backseat of the car, drove them out to the country, and set them free in a beautiful green meadow. And then, braving danger and hunger, dodging predators, and helping each other to cross raging whitewater rivers using only rotten logs that could break at any moment, the books came home, following me across the country to do so. Courageous little books. For the sake of their incredible journey alone, they deserve another read.
After I have them checked for ticks, of course.
photo date 8/27/09
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