I was a dedicated diary writer from 1985 to 1990. I am slowly transcribing about 1000 pages of those scribblings, which include almost two years as a vagabond wandering in Asia, Europe and North America. I was pretty broke much of the time, so I had to take occasional jobs: some were engineering projects, but one was a few days counting Penguins. I count this job as dirty work.
I loved/still love Penguins, the books. I like Penguins, the birds, too. In my teens, I was the Assistant Manager for the Penguin bookshop in the basement of the WH Smith store in Ealing Broadway, London. It was the second-largest Penguin bookshop in the UK, at a time when Penguins were becoming very popular after they published Lady Chatterley’s Lover, which had landed them in court defending themselves from the charge of publishing pornography. I, a keen reader, wandered the shelves, picking books up, reading here and there, and learning from my boss and from customers. (There is a story on how that job ended.) So, 20 years later, it seemed fitting to count Penguins at the Head office warehouse for Hammick’s Books, once a successful bookstore chain but now just a shadow.
I recount this counting story here, more or less as it was written. This makes for clumsy English in places, but then I was often a clumsy Englishman, especially when I was in England. In 1986, I had been out of the UK for over 15 years and had lost most of the British social graces I once had.
“Tuesday, January 28, 1986; Camberley (Surrey, England): So I sped off. Went to several warehouses, hospitals, and building sites in the area. Got encouraging responses from many places and best of all at a book store chain H.O. – Hammicks. They called me later and offered me a job at £2.3″something” /hour, picking books. Sounds ‘grotty’, according to personnel woman, but what the hell, it will pay the phone bill. I start tomorrow. It poured again in p.m – freezing rain, and I got home wet.
Wednesday January 29, 1986: Pissing down. An early start – cycled downhill to Hammicks Books (Frimley) with rain gear on, plastic bags on my feet. Still got wet. No great intro to work – just met my immediate Supervisor, Carol, and went to it. Idea was to sort out books belonging to Publishers being sent back from stores, Dead Stock – into prices, count them; pack them and weigh boxes. Got a big kick out of browsing occasionally. Loved doing the Penguins – must have seen 3 doz titles I could have easily read. Did work as quickly as possible – introducing efficiencies as l go along. No-one bothered me and I was grateful for that. I certainly did not feel that I had to prove anything to anyone, but I do want to do a good job, nevertheless.
Thursday, January 30, 1986: Had a short run at 0715; drizzling but what the hell. Got to work on time, tho raining quite hard. L & G got quite a kick out of seeing the white plastic bags on my feet – to keep shoes/feet dry! Probably looks very odd. Had busy day at Hammicks. Did all the Penguins today, some 2500 books in all. Kept myself to myself. Found myself making some silly mistakes – too much of a hurry. I keep on learning more just by occasionally flipping through a book – the Penguin titles are so engrossing. Hammicks still have not done the formal signing up for me yet – I’ll have to pursue this tomorrow. I don’t want to let the formalities slip.
Friday January 31, 1986: Early morning run, chilly; blinded by car lights @ 0700! Had a good breakfast. Hammicks work was long today, was glad when it was 1700h. Found couple of books to read and did so in tea break – a definite benefit to job. I haven’t made any friends yet – but that is OK; I do not feel like socialising.
Monday Feb 3, 1986: Wacked.. tried to run but body tired so made a short 12 minute trot; knee hurt a bit on way to work. Hard day at Hammicks, must have had another hundred skips come in – felt like I was being flooded with returns. Tried not to get demoralised – its only a job for a few days after all! But being tired did not help. I did couple hours of overtime.
Tuesday Feb 4, 1986: Very tired! In fact I slept in. The body much complaining – possibly a cold coming on? Had a really ‘drag my ass’ type of day at Hammicks; could not muster a lot of energy, but I did get stuck into the pile – made a small dent. I’m surprised at how little anyone bugs me – quite possibly its because I keep myself to myself. Have the occasional smile at folk, but do not make a deal of it. Supervisor Carol spends lot of time zooming around, but doesn’t need to spend much time supervising me. It really is a non-demanding job. Can’t get over how the warehouse manager, John, in suit, does manual labour.
Wednesday Feb 5, 1986: Another woozy morning – deliberately slept in. Long hard day at Hammicks, but at least no more dead stock coming in, so could get cracking on whittling the mass down. Started reading a book I found on Father Jerzy Popiełuszko; the priest killed by Polish Goverment during martial laws, and considered a matyr by many Poles.
Thursday, February 6, 1985: More woozy sleep. Thick snow! 6″ or so had fallen, and G. ecstatic. Me not so – I soon got off bike and walked down hill to Frimley – traffic backed up a long way. Quiet morning, got lots done- a real dent in the pile. Betty P. talked to me in p.m – interested in who I am I think. I’ve enjoyed my several days with Hammicks – I hope I can do more with them later – the 33.3% discount on books is worth swinging, if nothing else. Managed to cycle back.
Friday, February 7, 1986: Bitter cold day. And no run again. . . Worked hard all day at Hammicks – managed to finish all Penguins ~ 2400 of them. I totaled what I had sorted and packed in last several days, and estimate that I have packed 18,500 books and these weighed 3300 kilos. I’m not sure it that is an impressive number to sort and pack, but it would be to read! Had to restrain myself from wanting to buy a lot of books, since I can get 33.3% discount. In the end I got a Berlitz Arabic Phrase book, and a German phrase book; and a book discussing the outlines of philosophy for various religions, and the cases for and against God.”
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I am amused by how I jotted down “the 18,500” books I packed. Those few words were shorthand for sorting books into stacks by publishers and titles/prices. Once I knew how many books were in a stack (say 40), I counted the stacks to get sub-totals and then boxed them. I was very efficient with the hundreds of “Dead” titles: the returned hoped-for best-sellers that languished unbought over Xmas and expired as Dead Stock – to be buried by uncaring me in boxes, But I clearly cared about the Penguins and likely lavished much affection and attention of them before interring them…