Delights 3: the bookstore

On my way out of the bookstore, I caught the attention of the owner. A few weeks ago, he helped me pick a book for my oldest son, who is intellectually disabled and autistic, and my son had loved the gift. The owner walked me around the store, asking me questions about my son, and offering suggestions for his present. We landed on a small book that played a different clip of Beethoven on each page. Micah had loved the gift and the music and I wanted to be sure that the owner knew that. He thanked me for sharing the story and for continuing to support the store before he walked back inside and I went on to my van. 

The bookstore is easy to support. It is one of my favorite places in Lynchburg. I walked in this morning, Christmas and birthday money in my metaphorical hand—it was really in my bag—and went upstairs to browse the used books. I found four, three I have not read and one that I love and want for my own collection. Then I came downstair and broswed art books and nature books, cookbooks and kooky advice books. Then I beelined for the new fiction to look for what I wanted. I bought Wild Dark Shore and The Correspondent, both of which I’ve been dying to read, and then found a new book of essays by Zadie Smith. I read a novel of hers in the fall and picked up another upstairs in the used books. These essays looked fascinating. I also found two more books by her that I did not get. Apparently, along with being a year of Octavia Butler, it will be a year of Zadie Smith. Then I went straight to the shelf with Butler’s books and picked up the first Patternist novel, Pattern Master. 

The store is full of books and toys and puzzles and games. There are favorites I go to find and books I’d never discover on my own. This is what I want my own library to be for others.