Required reading for every booklover. I had to wait a day before writing this review so I wouldn't gush too embarrassingly. The book contains a trite, amusing little mystery, interesting in it's parallels to current history and acts of terrorism. Yes, the pen is mightier than the sword, and I wonder if the secret service keeps an eye on copies of Team of Rivals and Lush Life, Obama's recent reading picks.

But the book is magnificent when Morley lets Mr. Mifflin rant. At times I felt I was reading current blogs on bookseller sites: "She asked for The Passing of the Stone, and it turns out she wanted Shelters of Stone; it was blue; it was on this table last year; it has a vampire..."
Do booksellers supply the demand, or create the demand? I've always believed that booksellers do not deal in "merchandise", though my beliefs are strongly challenged after repeated inquiries for Twilight, Charlaine Harris, and Lost Symbol, just as Mifflin is discouraged by "that book about the boy raised by Monks." You mean Tarzan?! I like his idea that the uncommon customer acts as our "unconscious agent of book-destiny," leading us to an author we haven't yet met. I'd like to call myself an agent of book-destiny, shedding light on the books that hold up despite a lack of advertising. Sounds rather angelic, no?
This is the first time I've ever been tempted to read a book a second time right away. But the pull of book-destiny will assert itself too strongly, and I know I'll be led, instead, to read a handful more Morley titles as I can find them (why are they going out of print?!) with, perhaps, a few more readings of the first through third chapters, for some phrases to keep in my head as the next person asks me for "that history of Masonism" or "Dear God, it's Vodka."