My idea of a great time is spending an hour or more in my favorite bookstore scanning the shelves looking for old favorites and new discoveries. It's hard to describe the rush I get when I discover a hardcover of a book I want on the bargain rack for half price or less. Or the joy I feel when a favorite author has a new book published. This is my escape. This is my sanctuary from the hectic bustle of motherhood, marriage, career and hormones.
The closest bookstore to my home is a Barnes and Noble. I love B&N but I have come to realize that their selection is becoming more and more narrow as the years go by. I'm sure this has to do with technology and the advent of those e-reader things but I have watched my local B&N pare down my beloved mystery section once and noticed that they are no longer restocking as many backlists of older authors. I wish that I lived in an area that had all kinds of cute specialty bookstores but, as much as it may seem like it, this is not NYC. So I have come to rely on used bookstores and online swapping to fuel my need for backlisted titles of older authors. There is one used bookstore that is about half an hour from my home and has been there for years. It's housed in an old house and when I say that it is crammed full of books I am not exaggerating. You can barely move in this place, God help you if you meet another customer on an isle. It's like a mexican standoff, which one of you is going to abandon their pursuits and leave the isle to allow the other person room to look. But it's the best there is in the area and I've been stuck with it for years...until now.
I recently discovered a new used bookstore! Oh joy of joy's! And this one has two and a half isles devoted to mysteries!! And it's organized! And it doesn't feel like one false move and you will be buried alive by books! And it doesn't penalize you for trading in hardcover or oversized books like the other store does! And it has that great old book smell without the faint mix of cat urine and mold! I'm so excited I can hardly stand it! (ok last "!" I swear!) I am patiently abiding my time building up a bag of used books that aren't moving on the online swap site and waiting for the word from my mother, who always shares these used bookstore trips with me, and then I am so there to peruse a whole new set of shelves and musty old books. This one even has a decent kids area so I may even let my son tag along. Is there anything quite like finding a new book shopping experience?
Happy Reading!
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