Now THIS is why eBay is great

I spent a lot of time in libraries as a kid, and I remember certain books vividly. I found Street Rod, in the Yound Adult section, when I was 10 or 11. It was a pulp paperback with a flashy cover (not like this edition) written in 1953 by Henry Gregor Felson. There was nothing very Young Adult about the book by today's standards.

One thing I remember is the girlfriend convinces the kid to paint his hotrod pink, with copper wheels. And then they win the car show. Then everyone dies in a fiery wreck, or something.

After a bit of confusion (I first bought Felson's Hot Rod, published a year earlier, and it took me a while to figure out it was the wrong book) I finally tracked this down and it arrived a couple of days later. The point is that because of eBay, I get to read it again!

Of course 10 years ago I could have gone to Avenue Victor Hugo bookstore on Newbury Street and left a slip of paper with a part-time clerk (never to be seen again, usually), before wandering down the aisles of wonderfully musty old books, then maybe over to the Trident for a cup of cashew chili and a paper... arguably a much richer experience than sitting in front of a computer. But whatever, at least I actually got the book.