16 | May | 2010 | Bibliotica

Eating bagels while reading in bed is probably not anyone’s idea of a good weight loss diet, but sometimes it’s just the perfect way to spend an evening.

Last night, after my parents went to bed, I retired to the casita (their guest house) with a stack of books, a toasted bagel, and some chai tea. While old episodes of “The Middleman” played on my computer, mainly for noise, I finished one book (Lost and Found) and set aside another (Rebecca Well’s latest), in favor of Outer Banks, by Anne Rivers Siddons.

This book was probably one of mine, left here several visits ago. In fact, almost the entire “library” in this guest house is made of my cast-off novels and other paperbacks. Right now, I can see Eat, Pray, Love, cuddling with Angels and Demons, and I know both of those were mine, as was Left Bank, and this great book about a woman who smelled like figs and had an affair one summer.

But I chose Siddons’ novel because her work always puts me in a comfy reading zone, and I wanted that last night.

Of course, I still have four other books I brought with me, and I’d really prefer not to have to cart them all back home!

So, today, my parents and I drove from La Paz, where they live, to Todos Santos, the Mexican town which is home to the original Hotel California, among other things.

I wanted to buy some post cards, so we stopped in the local bookstore, which, I noticed, had some amazing local titles in both Spanish and English. I might have bought a book or two, as well as the postcards I’d been looking for, but the woman behind the counter was yakking on the phone the entire time Mom and I were shopping. We greeted her in Spanish, and she didn’t even acknowledge our presence. I don’t know what she was talking about – it could have been anything from lipozene customer reviews to what to have for lunch, but it was certainly keeping her focused on anything except furthering trade.

I finished my shopping and turned back toward the counter, when we realized that the music had been turned off, and the woman (I hate to refer to her as an employee or a clerk) had disappeared. She’d just left us in her shop with the door open and the lights on.

We waited ten minutes, but there was no sign of her, so I left the cards on the counter, and we walked out. I suppose we could have just taken them, but I would never DO that.

Later, on our way out of town in the car, we saw the store filled with tourists – and she had still not returned!

I bought my postcards, and about $500 MXP more merchandise, at the Hotel California gift store.