REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK -- Young Chang

I bought a used book recently -- volume one of “The Diary of Anais

Nin.” It cost $8.50, has a bent cover and some underlined parts.

Inside the cover, there is writing. Notes, it looks like, from the

previous owner, who I’m guessing was female because the handwriting is

loopy and feminine, if you can gender-ize handwriting.

o7 “Pebble collection,”f7 it sayso7 . “Sadness in handshaker. I

whip the wind, circle roller, run over boulders.”

f7 I was intrigued.

Used books stress me out. They’re bargains, and some of them are rare

first editions, but they’re grimy feeling and I have to wash my hands

after every reading.

I’ve thought about buying a bag of plastic gloves -- like the ones

worn by restaurant employees who assemble burritos and tacos -- but that

would be ridiculous.

So I read without them, but with a few rules:

Never on the bed.

Never in my pajamas.

Never while wearing white.

Never in public, because then I have to go to a public restroom (an

experience which requires a column of its own) and wash my hands.

I bought the diary anyway.

The notes reeled me in, and I’m growing ever more certain that this

previous reader was female.

A female reader who was or is a Northern Californian, possibly an

Italian pastry eater, a used-book hater and a newspaper column reader.

She had to have read works by my favorite writer, Henry Miller, the

author best known for “Tropic of Cancer” and his association with Anais.

She was his muse, or one of them.

She had to have lived in San Francisco, because that’s where I bought

the book during a recent visit north.

Surely, she had to have visited at least one of San Francisco’s

gazillion Italian bakeries (I made it to seven).

And she had to have shared my mania about used books. Yes, that’s it.

The diary had to have been a used edition when she bought it. Why else

would she have sold it?

And no, she could not have disliked Anais. That’s just not possible. I

have faith that this person sold the used diary to buy herself a new and

clean copy that is re-readable in bed, wearing pajamas, wearing white and

in public.

Might she even be a Daily Pilot reader?

The possibilities . . .

If you’re out there, female purchaser of volume one of “The Diary of

Anais Nin,” can we do lunch?

On me, that is. I owe you for the Anais.

* Young Chang writes features. She may be reached at (949) 574-4268 or

by e-mail at o7 young.chang@latimes.comf7 .