For months, I’ve been watching the shelves of the local thrift store’s book nook for a copy of Darwin’s Origin of Species and getting no joy. Several textbooks on Darwin showed up, and one I even bought because it had excerpts from Origin, but I wanted the real deal. I thought maybe I wasn’t looking in the right place, so one Saturday morning several weeks ago I went to the authority to ask for help.

There’s one guy stocking the shelves who’s obviously the book guru. He not only knows where all the books go, I think he’s a true-blue book-loving geek. When I go in on Saturdays he’s almost always talking with other guys I can only assume are either book collectors that would make me look freakishly amateur, or they’re dealers, because they’re talking about books in such an intensely personal way that it makes me feel I just shouldn’t be listening.

So he’s definitely the go-to guy when it comes to questions about the books. I caught up with him while he was working the stacks and asked, “If you had a copy of Darwin’s Origin of Species, where would it be?” And he went straight to the top shelf in the science section, swatted a couple books back and forth, and said whenever he gets a copy in he puts it right there. I’ve been watching that spot ever since.

When it was time for my lunch break today I really had to get out from behind my desk even though it was pretty cold all day, so I wrapped a scarf around my neck, zipped my jacket all the way up and when I got outside I kept the pace moving at an adjutant’s cadence. Following the bike path along the river, I came out on Willy Street at Micky’s Tavern, worked my way up and was going to turn back on Baldwin, but as I passed Saint Vinnie’s I caved in to the compulsion to check out the bookshelves. Just for a minute.

As I took the two steps down into the book nook I passed the book guru on his way out, probably to load up his cart with more books and bring them back. As he passed me he gave me such a funny look, as if he was trying to remember something, but didn’t stop, and neither did I. I went straight to the top shelf in the science section, and there it was: Origin of Species, right where he said it would be. And just a dollar. Thanks, buddy. You did me a favor, even if you couldn’t recall what it was at the time.