"Too old to need Basic Wiring's handy tips on how to set up outdoor lighting? Well, then, the Gunfighters is the book for you, profiling, among others, one great Westerner who was said to have shot someone for snoring."

No matter what the excuse and snappy, reflexive answer, the inevitable punch line would be: "So try (fill in book name) for 10 days, see have useful/fun it is, and if you like it, then go ahead and buy it, okay.

Ninety-five percent of the line it wasn't okay.

Despite constant rejection, the job became strangely tolerable. Part of was that there really was no swindling involved; all we were asking was for people to look at books and return them if they didn't want to buy them. We always made clear the price and that a wave of other, related books would follow.

But, more than that, the constant challenge of finding that one sale among the swamp of slams, polite hang-ups and pungent swearing sessions became addictive. It was a game between two voices, two personalities, two frames of mind.

And there are, of course, the anecdotes: the early-morning (negated) sale to an eight-year-old; the sale of Basic Wiring to a master electrician; and the time one customer said, "Hey, 'can I have three copies? I got a couple, of buddies that would love that book." I almost told him that no one could love Basic Wiring. But I didn't.