Not Bowling, and Not Alone

Day 225, of the "What are you reading, and why?" project, and a nice young dark-haired man is reading Bowling Alone, by Robert D. Putnam, because a nice young red-haired man found it for him, in Babbitt's, where I work.

The dark-haired man had been in the day before, and saw the book on a stack on the floor in front of the non-fiction New Arrivals shelf, but now it was gone.

"Is it really about bowling?" I asked, sensing that, indeed, it was not.

"No," he said, and explained that it was an important work of sociology. I then explained where he would be likely to find it, but I also advised checking in Miscellaneous Sports, or on the floor in front of that section, just in case!

Which is, indeed, where the red-haired young man found it.  Who sweetly, quietly brought it to the front of the store and gave it to the dark-haired young man.  Because 1) we are not bowling alone and 2) a sociologist in deed is a sociologist indeed.  (And I do hope the red-haired young man, in town applying for a job teaching sociology at the local university, gets that job!!)  "It's a classic work in sociology," said this young man,  "and you know it when you see it."