For over a year now there has been a "Book Exchange" at Fairway Market. In reality it's just a glorified gray tub, tucked into a space on a shelf between the dog food and the scratcher machine; it usually contains about six or seven romance novels. Every time I see this tub I cringe. "Book Exchange" suggests that there are books that I would like to read and am willing to trade one of my books for. I hate to think of tourists who come into town and glance with hopeful eyes at the tub as they check out. The tourists would say to themselves, as their overpriced broccoli is being scanned, 'Perhaps there is a book, enriching and enjoyable, that I can read as I sit beneath the trees outside my cabin.' However, upon glancing inside the gray tub, they see Naughty Paris, What Happens in Vegas, Kidnapped by the Cowboy, and The Wealthy Widow. The tourist must wonder, what kind of town is this? I thought I was visiting a small town with art and culture, but these books would suggest otherwise. In the words of Dawn Adams "Show me the books he loves and I shall know the man far better than through mortal friends." If these are the books that represent this town, than I think we need to find better representation.

Today I acted on my embarrassment for that "Book Exchange" and put new, non-romance, books in the gray tub. My book shelves are over loaded anyways, and I seldom read a book more than once. Why not pass on some of my old sociology books and other interesting reads? I hope this is the end of the era of the romance novel at Fairway Market.