I have a bad habit of opening novels and beginning to read them, and then putting them down again, before I reach their endings, which is why I usually buy books only from used bookstores, where they are inexpensive, because then I don’t feel as though I’m wasting money if I don’t finish them. On this occasion, however, the book had stayed in my memory, or anyway had kept occurring to me, after I’d placed it back on the table where I’d seen it. And so eventually I’d returned to a Barnes & Noble location to buy it, because I’d decided I wanted to read it immediately, instead of waiting to see if I came across it somewhere, or ordering it online and having it mailed to me.