November 20, 2007 -- Tuesday evening

Reading Dissolution, by Richard Lee Byers. He's big into fantasy books, and all books, really.

When his mother died he went back home to New York, a little town on the Hudson River, and cleaned out the loft of their barn. Covering an area roughly 20 feet by 30 feet were 17,000 of his books. Fantasy, books on ceramics, stained glass, children's books he kept to read to his kids.

A friend of his with a truck helped him take them to a used bookstore, where they sold them all--more than doubling the store's inventory-- for the very reduced price of $650.

Folks that don't know his name call him the book man. He's always reading.