A Boy and His Dog. The End.

This morning, as one of our regulars was giving a friend a first-time-new-to-the-bookstore tour, his eyes fell upon “The Solitude of Prime Numbers” by Paolo Giordano and he turned to tell me how much he had loved it. As we discussed the charm of prime numbers, he was reminded of a book he had seen at a bookstore in Mexico City – browsed but never read – a book that wasn’t about prime numbers, but mentioned them…it had a red cover.  It was about a boy.  There was a dog involved somehow.  As with many a “bookie”, he already had a stack waiting to be read, so he had passed up the book with the red cover, but now prime numbers were calling him to it again. Boys and dogs are found everywhere in literature, but I couldn’t remember reading anything that paired them with mathematics. Shifting gears, my eyes raced across our modest inventory in search of red covers.  There are fewer of them than you’d think, and nothing currently suggesting boys, dogs, or prime numbers. Ah, well… He turned back to his friend and they browsed along the shelves, caressing titles of interest and commenting quietly to one another in Spanish…a lovely, musical soft murmur.  He bought a book, as it happened one with a lot of red in the cover, and they left.  Their sweet sound lingered behind them, however, and must have somehow aligned my brainwaves with the music of the spheres because…bang!…out leapt “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightime” by Mark Haddon.  Boy.  Dog.  Red cover. I have not read this book myself, but now I remembered the oddity of chapters numbered as primes.  I raced over to the shelf.  Not there.  Sold out, for the moment.  Sometimes your own wide reading and brilliant knowledge of literature gives you full entitlement to your “Name That Tune” moment.  Other times, like this one, it’s just pure unknowable collective unconsciousness.  Mark Haddon’s psychic holographic self jumping up and down “That’s me!  Me!”  Then your talent lies in listening rather than scoffing at yourself…confidence in your favor with the Book Gods.  However it happens, our customer’s title will be waiting for him at his next appearance on our enchanted little stage.

-Jane