Ode to a Past Booknooker
and a stalwart contributor to this blog
by Zita Podany
This will be the last posting in this Blog.
How fitting to honor the person who contributed so much to this blog when we initially started it.
Dan LOVED working in the Booknook and some of you may have known him. He sadly passed away on March 17, 2026. I have debated whether to end this blog since now it no longer serves future goals. But before we do, I just want this last post to be a tribute to him and those of you who knew him.
Most of the photos you see on this website were created by Dan Bullard, including the video of the Booknook and how we open and close it. This blog was something that resonated with him and many times he would post about the books he came across on his shift in the Booknook. This was the garden he tended on a weekly basis as he wanted people to know what wonderful books we had on our shelves awaiting new homes and new readers.
We were both part of the "original" Booknookers although he started later than I did. I first met Dan when our shifts overlapped. Dan was easygoing, had a great sense of humor (although a bit peppered with a salty Navy twang) and he always encouraged others to dare to follow their ideas and dreams. He knew that I had created a Booknook website and that I was a freelance desktop and web designer. We collaborated in building a website for the Friends of Vancouver Community Library but first we had to convince the then-current FoVCL board that we needed a website not just for the Booknook, but for the FoVCL group.
Dan taught many workshops at the Vancouver Community Library in what was once the computer lab (that room is now used for arts and crafts). He tried to convince me to do the same but back then I had a full-time job as a business and computer teacher as well as a freelancer/consultant on various projects. Dan accepted me as an equal, never a put down because I was a female treading in male-dominated waters. He also mentored a couple of Booknookers through the process of writing and publishing of their memoirs.
His book, the Reluctant Road Warrior is a true testament to his travels, intellect, common sense, no pretenses, down-to-earth style, and sense of true scientific exploration, observation, curiosity and troubleshooting. I always wondered why his theory of Harmonics was not accepted by the elites since he could easily prove it through many testing scenarios. Dan was incredibly smart, loved books, writing, and sharing his knowledge with others. I learned more about Harmonics from Dan than from my physics textbooks. I was in awe of his technical expertise in plumbing his houseboat with a reverse-osmosis system. Never knew how reverse-osmosis worked until Dan showed me how he rigged it up on his houseboat. To say I was impressed is an understatement.
Each year I was invited to watch the Christmas ships from their family's houseboat and each year life got in the way. He and his wife, April (also a published author), shared videos of those houseboats all decked with lights strutting their colorful designs along the Willamette river. This summer I was planning on visiting them at their new Marina. Just goes to show, if you put off to tomorrow what could have been done yesterday, opportunities will slip away.
May he rest in peace, enjoy the sunrises and sunsets, the eagles and the fish as life settles into virtual harmonics.
If you knew Dan and worked with him, his obituary has more information on his incredible life.
And with that, this will be the last posting on this blog as we bid adieu to this portion of our site.
This blog will go away on Sept 1, 2026.
How fitting to honor the person who contributed so much to this blog when we initially started it.
Dan LOVED working in the Booknook and some of you may have known him. He sadly passed away on March 17, 2026. I have debated whether to end this blog since now it no longer serves future goals. But before we do, I just want this last post to be a tribute to him and those of you who knew him.
Most of the photos you see on this website were created by Dan Bullard, including the video of the Booknook and how we open and close it. This blog was something that resonated with him and many times he would post about the books he came across on his shift in the Booknook. This was the garden he tended on a weekly basis as he wanted people to know what wonderful books we had on our shelves awaiting new homes and new readers.
We were both part of the "original" Booknookers although he started later than I did. I first met Dan when our shifts overlapped. Dan was easygoing, had a great sense of humor (although a bit peppered with a salty Navy twang) and he always encouraged others to dare to follow their ideas and dreams. He knew that I had created a Booknook website and that I was a freelance desktop and web designer. We collaborated in building a website for the Friends of Vancouver Community Library but first we had to convince the then-current FoVCL board that we needed a website not just for the Booknook, but for the FoVCL group.
Dan taught many workshops at the Vancouver Community Library in what was once the computer lab (that room is now used for arts and crafts). He tried to convince me to do the same but back then I had a full-time job as a business and computer teacher as well as a freelancer/consultant on various projects. Dan accepted me as an equal, never a put down because I was a female treading in male-dominated waters. He also mentored a couple of Booknookers through the process of writing and publishing of their memoirs.
His book, the Reluctant Road Warrior is a true testament to his travels, intellect, common sense, no pretenses, down-to-earth style, and sense of true scientific exploration, observation, curiosity and troubleshooting. I always wondered why his theory of Harmonics was not accepted by the elites since he could easily prove it through many testing scenarios. Dan was incredibly smart, loved books, writing, and sharing his knowledge with others. I learned more about Harmonics from Dan than from my physics textbooks. I was in awe of his technical expertise in plumbing his houseboat with a reverse-osmosis system. Never knew how reverse-osmosis worked until Dan showed me how he rigged it up on his houseboat. To say I was impressed is an understatement.
Each year I was invited to watch the Christmas ships from their family's houseboat and each year life got in the way. He and his wife, April (also a published author), shared videos of those houseboats all decked with lights strutting their colorful designs along the Willamette river. This summer I was planning on visiting them at their new Marina. Just goes to show, if you put off to tomorrow what could have been done yesterday, opportunities will slip away.
May he rest in peace, enjoy the sunrises and sunsets, the eagles and the fish as life settles into virtual harmonics.
If you knew Dan and worked with him, his obituary has more information on his incredible life.
And with that, this will be the last posting on this blog as we bid adieu to this portion of our site.
This blog will go away on Sept 1, 2026.
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