My very first blog is momentous, but I’m just going to roll with what’s inspiring me today. About six years ago, my eldest son and I are going to a show together. He’s about twenty years old, I’m about twenty years older than that. I can’t remember if was a film, or a concert we we’re heading to. It could have been a Counting Crows concert in Lake County, California; the time he nearly killed us passing a car on a curve, his little Honda riding on two wheels.
In any case, his back seat is littered with the detrious of his student’s lifestyle. True to his intellect, a lot of the scattered items are books. The situation makes me recall my anger when my sons are growing up, yelling at them if they leave their books lying about. It feels so disrespectful to the book, no matter how humble its binding. On this day, one of the books on his backseat is: FUP, by Jim Dodge. I glance at it, and laugh at the title and style of the book. It’s a slim, softcover book with green wraps, a picture of a mallard duck on the front. “Oh, that’s a great book, I met the author, Jim Dodge, at SSU.” my sons says.
I go home with FUP that night, and the next day, I toss it into the cab of my pickup, on my way to the fleamarket. I started selling on eBay back in 1999, what prompted me to sell was my big collection of VHS films, which I wanted to liquidate in order to purchase the DVD editions. I was amazed and delighted with the results. I’ve been a book lover my whole life, and shelf space for most of us is limited, so after the VHS tapes were sold, I started thinning out my bookshelves.
After my initial exposure of selling on eBay, I begin actively looking for items I can sell. I find a hub for a national charity, where they let me fill up a box of books for $5. At least once a week, when I can finish my work at the post office in time, I rush over there. Every time I pull into the parking lot, my heart beats faster. I never know what I might find. Perhaps a good title-first edition with dustjacket, a mess of obscure magazines, or an old engineering book with great line drawings. OR, I might find box after box of romance novels, ratty softcover books, bestsellers in really nice shape, or worst-of-all: books that have been rained on.
I haul these boxes of books home, many books I list on eBay, and many more fill my bookcases, as I don’t want to part with them. Eventually, you end up with a lot of books you need to get rid of. “Deadwood,” is a term I’ve heard booksellers call these items. I find it a lot of fun, and profitable, to categorize the books, and take them to the flea market. Fifty cents for a softcover, one dollar for a hardback. Even at these prices, I make a profit, and get to talk about books.
So, one Sunday about six years ago finds me reading FUP in my lawn chair, under an umbrella, in the heat of a northern California summer day. I finish the book before noon, and am astonished how a book that looks so innocuous could have such an effect on me. It makes me laugh, it makes me cry, it makes me want to buy every copy I can find to share with others. I’ve done so ever since. I never see a copy of FUP I do not purchase. Even if I don’t make a profit on it, I can’t let FUP sit there, uncared for.
My favorite story about FUP I have is: My youngest son and I visit our relatives in Germany in Spring 2007. Our main objective is to visit my grandmother, my Oma, who is nearly 98 at the time. She is in a very nice assissted-living home there. We also visit our other relatives, and on one such visit, I am perusing the bookshelves, which is often one of my first inclinations when entering a house, and there I see, at the bottom of a stack of German books, FUP. The title is upside down, so I don’t believe my eyes at first. I pull it out, indeed….FUP by Jim Dodge. I am flabber-ghasted. My straight-laced aunt and uncle are the last people on earth I’d have expected to have this book. They are amazed I know of it, we laugh and exchange stories. My cousin, Jörn, gave it to them as a Christmas gift. I get the feeling they never really understood the humor of the story. They insist I take the lovely hardcover book with dustjacket and interesting illustrations home with me. Go figure…FUP…Jim Dodge…penetrating all the way into a small northern German town, where the population is not known for their sense of humor. Long live FUP!
