Any pair will do. (Really!)

Internet image -Source unknown

The way some, OK, many women are drawn to shoes, I am drawn to books. Or to be more exact, to second hand book stores. I couldn't care less what pair of shoes I'm book browsing in, but the feeling of finding the perfect book is very similar to finding the perfect fit.
     It is rather uncanny how, out of the clear blue, an image of the interior of one of my favourite haunts will pop up and stay with me. Every now and again gently nudging me with the view of a shelf of books, the smell of old print when I open one of my own collection. And I know: I am being summoned. There is a book waiting for me.
     As with the Sunbirdish, it didn't happen overnight. It dawned on me that something was afoot when, almost without fail, I was told by George as I presented him with a find, that it has long been on his wish list. I know about his wish lists on Loot, Amazon and privately kept, but to keep track would mean carting a very large document with literally hundreds of entries with me when I go hunting!
    I seemed to be appointed by on high as our joint book scout! With this realisation came a strong sense of responsibility and at first I was quite frantic about it. What if I miss what I've been sent for?
    But I soon realised that all that is required of me, is to respond to the "call" and then to enjoy the shopping! I have yet to be disappointed and now I treat it more as a game than a serious search.
    I simply go through the shelves, enjoying myself immensely, browsing and smelling and feeling the textures of covers and paper. My eyes have become accustomed to pick up the names of authors that form part of the clan that George refers to in Old Friends, but every so often I make a new acquaintance and this usually happens with a book falling out when a neighbour is being handled, or lying casually on top of a stack of books. There seems to be some form of magnetism involved. Or an internal scanner that picks up words that resonate with me.
    I read somewhere once, that a book cover has 10 seconds to persuade a customer to buy it. I totally know this to be true.
    Another interesting fact is that sometimes books I acquire in this way, don't make a lot of sense at the time. But somewhere along the line, and sometimes even years later, a second summons sounds and I read it in awe at the way it came across our path.
    One such book is Matthew Fox's book on Creation Centred Spirituality, Original blessing. It summoned me to a delightful little book shop in Pierneef Street, Pretoria, more than three years ago. I have not had the spiritual vocabulary to grasp what this book is about until recently. But now its time has come. And I'm captivated by this new member of our circle of old friends.

Matilda