"My first actual W-9 and time-card job was at the Boulder Book Store. I'd walk over from Boulder High and shelve newly received books or pull books for returns. I got to know some truly weird and wonderful booksellers and every corner of the store--science fiction went in the Ballroom, but alien conspiracies in the Annex. I loved it there.... My co-workers were musicians and ex-monks and conspiracy theorists, but all of us were readers, with an enviable book discount, and I knew I was among my people. And, of course, I'd glance often at that space between William Maxwell and Cormac McCarthy and wonder if I'd ever put anything there."