I have been watching a bus stop on the north side of West Broadway Road just west of Extension Road in Mesa. For a week now, a common white molded plastic chair, like those found on patios and beside pools, has been the only available seating beside the bus stop pole. Its at one of those Valley Metro bus stops without benches or shading. Sometimes, there is a person seated in that single chair waiting for the bus. Other times it is tipped over, with or without people waiting for the Metro. How did that chair get there? And why is it able to just stay and stay without someone swiping it or it being removed by Valley Metro for not being a part of the bus stops standard setting?But what a great idea! That common chair that can be gotten on sale for $5.99 this week at CVS Pharmacy, for example, gives someone an unexpected seat along a busy street while waiting for a bus. Compliments to whoever donated it. If I were to speculate, the chair came along with someone who had to catch the bus who never knew how long the wait would be and didnt want to stand long. What is next to be donated to a bus stop like that? Perhaps, an umbrella that can just be opened by users and closed and left for the next person. Or bottled water. Or books or a Bible. Maybe a portable radio. Nose tissues. A jigsaw puzzle for people to progressively put together. In airports, I frequently look for the abandoned newspapers, even magazines, on seats to read while awaiting a flight. Often I will pick through the newspaper sections and claim what I want. I regard those who leave publications behind as people giving a gift to those who follow later. So I am somewhat offended when the airport cleaning folks come past and sweep up ever kind of reading material and put them into the garbage. That abruptly ends the lifecycle of each publication.On Saturday morning, my wife and I are going to two used book sales one starting at 7 a.m. at Dayspring United Methodist Church, 1365 E. Elliot Road, Tempe. Then well be in line at 9 a.m. at the Tempe Public Library, 3500 S. Rural Road, for the Friends of the Librarys spring book sale (even though their reminder postal card says autumn sale.). We have far more books that I will ever begin to read, although my wife wolfs them down with vigor. But well buy more books more of those recycled books. And well try to find shelving somewhere to hold them. Just looking at a bookshelf is a walk down memory lane, past titles that represented precious times of good reading. Examining books for sale often triggers our memories of having read those books on our own.My favorite book sale is the VNSA Book Sale every February at the Arizona State Fairgrounds. I get in line as early as 5 a.m. to be in the first wave of people let into the huge exhibit hall, and I fight the crowds and lose track of time as I gather books to own. Its said to be one of the Wests greatest used book sales. Coveting books is a wonderful addiction. Yet it is wise to be able to cull shelves and move them on to other potential readers and give new value to them. Several years ago, one of our Tribune metro editors took a job in New York and was beset with the weighty job of either packing hundreds of books or unloading them. We all watched her come day after day to the Tribune with boxes of prized books. She carefully shopped them around to writers and editors, giving them away thoughtfully to people as if she were looking for good homes for orphans. I took several boxes. Admittedly some are still in boxes in a shed. But they are great books.With publishing houses producing new titles as a breathtaking rate, it would seem we are going to be buried in books as a civilization. Meanwhile, Ill keep watching that plastic chair at the bus stop at Extension and Broadway and admire that such a thing can actually happen.

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