Read A Book!

When was the last time you went into a bookstore?  Are you like me, do you own an e-reader and simply download your books these days?  I don't remember the last time I went to a Barnes and Noble to just browse around and be inspired before yesterday.  OK, I take that back, the last time was probably in February when I went to pick up a book about Croatia and didn't want to wait for Amazon to deliver.  I remember looking through the International travel section, drooling over all the places I haven't yet visited and dreaming about wanting/needing some of those other travel guides some day.

Dreams and adventures on a shelf

Every time I go to a bookstore, which is not as often as it used to be, I get excited and a bit sad.  I fear with the digital age, paper and print are going the way of vinyl.  Books will become retro, vintage and cool but only to a select market.  I always enjoy a good browsing session in the bookstore.  I notice books I would never see searching on Amazon.  I get to see the actual book, read it's jacket, flip through the pages, and let my senses guide me to places I'd never find on the Internet.  There are just so many books and so little time to read them all, especially if you read at the speed of a 5th grader like I do.  One advantage I find in reading books instead of e-books is I can skip around or just skip over things.  This works especially well with genres like how-to books, travel books or non-fiction, not so well with fiction unless you don't care about "who done it".

A Curious Mind....a book I would have never stumbled upon on the Internet.
I am curious!  This could be a nice pick up, put down or jump around book.

I should always have a jump around book going as well as the book I'm reading on my e-reader.  This will keep me in the book stores regularly and let me read a variety of books.  So, if you find yourself with a few spare minutes  hours, stop into a bookstore and just enjoy yourself!  Otherwise, they are going to become the next Blockbuster.

The library is another place a person can get lost.  I remember we used to take our children to the library every two weeks.  Our second daughter would always say she didn't want to go and sometimes pitch a fit about going....imagine that!  Inevitably we would select books for everyone and check out right about closing time and have to go from aisle to aisle looking for our reluctant daughter.  We always found her in some corner surrounded by a pile of books and fully engrossed in one of them.  The one who didn't want to go was the one we had to drag out at the end of the night.  Bookstores and libraries are just like that!