Like so many people here, I've pieced together a collection over the years (though while moving a few years back, I had someone filch my entire hardcover collection of Salinger first editions, including the Catcher with his picture on back, which I consider irreplaceable, by this point). It's great to see how many of us prowl the aisles of stores this way; I wonder whether any of us have crossed paths at some time or another! Anyhow, I wanted to mention the curiosity that was in this week's NY Times Book Review. A dealer in rare books is selling a first edition of F&Z for $500. Gack. The most I paid for any of the Salinger firsts I had was $6, and most of them were in tip-top shape. One little delight (where would we be without little delights?) popped up this weekend, as I was continuing to rearrange books in some coherent way. I turned up a geeky paperback in a pile of Salinger material, The Armchair Esquire, a 1958 anthology of stuff published in Esquire magazine. Whoever sold it to me for $2.50 lightly pencilled inside the cover, "has out-of-print Salinger story about Holden Caulfield," and what do you know ... it has "This Sandwich Has No Mayonnaise." Unfortunately, it's so brittle, I can hardly open it. But it was a decent surprise. One of the sad, sad facts of life here in NYC is that there are so few used-book stores, it's nearly impossible to find a rarity on the shelf anymore. A few years ago I snagged an inscribed copy of a special edition on Goodbye Columbus for about ten bucks, and I remember leaving the store convinced that someone would snag me by the arm and take it back.... --tim o'connor