The Bookstore

The picture has nothing to do with the post. Just doesn't my uncle look like Viggo Mortenson in Eastern Promises? (Yes, the Great Slide Project of 2009 continues.)

So yesterday I went to the bookstore.

I bought . . .

--Present for Oldest Daughter

--Present for father (he doesn't read my blog, so I can tell you it's the entire Ken Burns Jazz series on DVD)

--Presents (three) for Significant Other. Since I am sure he has dyslexia, this involves books on tape

--Presents for Baby Girl

--Present for Oldest Son

I LUSTED after at least ten books and one movie for me. I refrained.

The bookstore was packed.

As I posted on Facebook today, books are like crack to me.

And here's my thought . . .

In the era of everyone declaring books are going to be extinct one day and the era of e-books . . . there are SOME people who are always, and I mean forever, going to lust after that specific experience. A bookstore, for people like me, is never, and I mean NEVER EVER going to be about dashing in and buying one book. Though I knew I have ONE book to buy, I dropped a boatload of Christmas cash. I COULD have walked right to the literature section and bought the ONE book and been done with it. But I can't. Aisles of crack cause me to wander and lose track of time. A bookstore isn't ABOUT single purchases for me. It's about reading back covers of new releases and wandering the science and math aisle (sadly, did not get to do that). It's about looking at covers. And opening coffee tables books. It's about mentally making a list of books I covet.

Will I ever have an e-reader? I think so. What would I put on it? Classics. Big thick science books I can annotate. Research stuff. Some faves. Newspapers or magazines, maybe. Stuff I don't want to schlep when I go to the doctor's office and have to wait--ta da, I could turn on an e-reader. I wouldn't have to bring a whole SECOND bag on vacation to lug my books. I would never worry about not having reading material with me.

Will I ever STOP having my experience of yesterday? Nope. They are two entirely different entities. One is an experience. The other is convenience.

Thoughts? And are people like me the MAJORITY? The minority?

Discuss.

:-)