I decided to order a copy of the Book of Concord, not knowing if any Baptists here would be interested in the foundational confessional statement of Lutheranism but figuring that it was a classic that should be in any theology collection. A few days later a student came in and checked out armloads of books on the Augsburg Confession, one component of the BOC. Hurray for me!

Shortly after I ordered Bloom's Hamlet: Poem Unlimited a student came in asking for books on the play; likewise, I ordered Stanley Fish's Surprised by Sin and was later able to hand it to a student looking for criticism of Paradise Lost. I don't give myself as much credit for these matches because assignments on Shakespeare and Milton are as predictable a part of the academic routine as registration and the freshman fifteen.