Recently, I’ve been reading for fun. After reading nothing else but Christian studies, leadership guidelines, volunteer retention suggestions, and a myriad of other “work related” materials for a few years, it has been really nice to sink my teeth into a novel…for fun. For escapism and entertainment.
I’m actually re-reading a humongous novel (897 pages since I’m bragging about my literacy) that my husband bought for me after I picked up a preceding novel by the same author in a Washington, DC bookstore back in the early 90’s. Not a Barnes & Noble….this bookstore smelled like a bookstore. Vintage books with well worn pages reaching up to the ceiling on overloaded oak shelves. Tiny aisles that couldn’t accommodate people who needed to pass one another, avid readers seated on the floor while browsing through classics, little conversation so as not to disturb serious bibliophiles.
This wasn’t a place where children were necessarily welcomed; no section of music to peruse if books weren’t your “thing”, no baristas handing you a $5 “tall half-skinny half-1 percent extra hot split quad shot (two shots decaf, two shots regular) latte with whip.”
This was a bookstore on a downtown corner of DC, a block from the Metro station and a goldmine of a find for a book geek like myself. I could have stayed all day~ it was a warm respite from the snowfall outside.
It was there that I found this very large, almost intimidating, novel that I felt would sufficiently distract me from hospital waiting rooms and the isolation of time spent alone. It did the trick and though I have long since forgotten the subplots, I always recalled how much I enjoyed the author’s writing style and plot development. For the last 15 years or so, the book I am now reading once again has been in various locations in various homes in various cities as I’ve moved around but about a month ago I decided to pick it up and give it another go.
So I’m a little more than halfway through and my opinion stands confirmed. But the thing about this book is that it’s attached to a memory of the bookstore, and the memory of W and I walking back to our room on powdery snow, bookstore bag in hand, following a meal of amazing tomato basil soup next to a fireplace in a restaurant we just happened to fall into. You just don’t get that with a Kindle or a Nook…..part of the fun of this particular book is that I can hold it and remember…
Blessings,
Amy