I went into a used bookstore the other day. Painted green floors, taxidermy, folk art, and books, of course, a million-trillion books all under the watchful eyes of two sisters with gray hair down their backs. It was incredible; bizarre in the best of ways.
I put enough change in the meter to last me twenty minutes and walked through a courtyard, under a yellow awning, and across a threshold into Diagon Alley. I immediately started scanning books, but it was the type of place where you tell the shopkeeper what you need and she scans the catalog she keeps only in her mind and says, “You’ll find Chekhov on the third aisle, bottom shelf, next to the book on how to make dim sum.”
As practical as I am, there is a large part of me that is mystical, prone to woo-woo. This store brought out the woo-woo. I don’t know if it was the sisters or the smell of yellowed paper or the large set of antlers with the scalp and skull still attached under which I stood transfixed for five minutes, but the place vibrated with energy. Even Nicholas must have felt it because after he finished playing with the blocks in a woven straw bucket he put them all away before he started in on the puzzles. My only explanation is that we were somewhere magical, because the muggle version of Nicholas can only be bribed or threatened into picking up toys.
I bought Mikey a $4 hardcover of Lemony Snicket’s A Series Unfortunate Events and walked out to the car to find the meter expired long ago. I didn’t get a ticket.
This makes me want to kick my feet up and have a butter beer.
Hah!!
GASP! No ticket? Magic, indeed!
I know!
Magical – the place and your description!
twenty minutes?! Girl – what were you thinking?! Probably the policeman is a bookworm, too ;-)
That, or maybe they were drinking butter beer with Tiffany!
Everything about this, the text, the photo — makes me OH SO HAPPY!
don’t tease! need the name of the bookstore!
sounds like the “cemetery of fogotten books” in “the shadow of the wind”.
Don’t you love how the floorboards bend and creak as you walk over them. . . My aunt is a book fiend but will not step foot in that store for fear that it will collapse. ;) and that’s precisely why I love it.
I completely agree!
What a great story. I wish I could visit this store.
Amazon will never be able to do what that store did for you Jules. I love reading your writing. Have a great weekend.
Thank you, Marla. :)
Love! Love! LOVE!
Don’t all used bookstores have some kinda woo-woo going on? (I think it’s from the previous book owners…) Sad that I don’t know of cool used bookstore like this close to me. Maybe that’s a good thing.
20 mins on the meter, that sounds like something I would do- just to limit the amount of damage I could do.
Happy Friday! ;)
That was exactly my motivation. A stop watch, of sorts. :)
And when will you be going back?!
I went back on Friday and bought Mikey 10 Magic Treehouse books for $2 each. :)
And this is why I still prefer bookstores to Amazon, when I get the chance. There is magic there, and I’m glad your little boys are being taught to recognize it. :)
Yup!
San Francisco has many such bookstores and I travel 50+ miles to visit them; many are within walking distance of each other. My favorite part of your story is “…you tell the shopkeeper what you need and she scans the catalog she keeps only in her mind and says, ‘You�ll find Chekhov on the third aisle, bottom shelf, next to the book on how to make dim sum.’�
There was a bookstore in law school that was just like this, too. In fact, the owner (a brother and his sister) said no one was allowed to hunt for books. It was too dangerous with all the piles. O_O
And that is why used bookstores are the best place in the world.
Sounds like you found a bookstore time warp! I love it!
LOL. Awesome.
Jules, this is off the topic of bookstores, but it is about a book. I just finished going through The Perfectly Imperfect Home by Deborah Needleman and thought about you. She says in it (when speaking of decorative “things” – tchotchkes, figurines, bibelots, and knickknacks) that we should only keep something if it’s beautiful, useful, or meaningful. I thought that was a nice addition to WM – although I could group meaningful under beautiful AND useful. Also, on the same page she refers to David Hicks as the “zhuzher of objects nonpareil.” So two things on one page that made me think of you.
Hah! That is actually one of my favorite design books! I loved it. :)
Thank you, everyone, for such nice comments. It was completely unexpected! :)
You’re welcome. ;)