It was a dream he had nearly two decades ago, when the former pub manager realized he liked "dealing with books more than dealing with people." Since then, it's been his full-time job to run The Book Thing, which funds itself through a combination of financial donations, the sale of some donated books and the rental of some volumes to theaters and film and TV productions in the area, he said (Wattenberg pays himself around $13,000 a year, enough, he said, for room and board).