Might as Well Face it, You're Addicted to...

I am addicted to…bookstores and good libraries.

     Bookstores, teaming with the old and the new. I adore being surrounded to the point of squished by towers of books, round, antique tables with artfully arranged items punctuated by the bindings and covers of books that draw me in to the point of total distraction.

     Now, if that bookstore also has an inobtrusive coffee bar, well that is just the ribbon on the day! The Old Fox Bookstore in Annapolis, Maryland is just that place. I was there the other day, meeting my sister and some of her young adults, formerly known as children. Over the most sublime Turmeric expresso, we laughed, talked, pondered, shared our purchases, all while sitting in deep wooden chairs, at a well-worn, long wooden table. I do not think the woman at the end on her laptop appreciated our periodic guffaws of laughter. Hey, go to a modern bookstore if you can’t be separated from your laptop, or laugh along with us! (Yes, if I hear others laughing, it makes me laugh too. I love that about me.)

     I had no plan for what I wanted. That is part of the charm of this store. I came upon a translation, published in 1966 by Goethe called, The Sufferings of Young Werther. Now how am I supposed to pass that up? I lived in Frankfurt, birthplace of Goethe, but when I lived there, I was but a teen in the mid-1970’s and was more interested in acquiring the 3-stripe Vienna style Adidas than history.

     Twirling and side stepping to another section, my eye is captured by the “Come Hither” cover of The Forest Lord by Noel B. Gerson published in 1955. Now, the title and cover grabbed me but the thing that sold me, was the stamp on the inside which said, LIBRARY Heritage Baptist Church Annapolis, MD. What?? The femme fatal on the front did not jibe with what I thought a church library would stock on its shelves. Maybe, it was on some “Cautionary Tale” shelf, with the label, “Beware of this Book. Do not let it into the hands of impressionable youth.” Who knows? Now, be forewarned, if you decide to read said book, it treats the enslaved people and the institution of slavery with a cavalierness which is revolting. There is only one character, who speaks of “slavery being against the humanity of man.” I should have anticipated this, but failed to read the subtitle “A romantic adventure of 18^th century Charleston” before purchasing and reading. It is however, a real window into the mindset of 1955 America.

And now, on to the second of my addictions, libraries.

      The libraries around me are all so modern and lacking in the musty, dusty, twisty, turny alcoves of yore. I don’t want metal and plastic. I want wooden bookshelves, tables and chairs, floor to ceiling windows that actually open and are open on beautiful days.

   I want to turn the corner of each library aisle and be stunned into awe by old books with tattered covers and pages that have been turned and savored so many times that they are dog eared and yellowed.

    I want original bindings, first editions, scattered within new offerings as well. I don’t want to see computers. I don’t want to have DVD’s mixed in with books. I just want books, damn it!

     I want a librarian who roams the aisles, spots me and says, “You look like you’d enjoy,” and then she/he recommends a book I’ve never heard of and off we go in search of it. I read it at home, can’t stop turning the pages and know that when I return, the same librarian will send me in the direction of a book which will expand me, send me into a world I did not know previously, introduce me to an author I had never known, or had forgotten about from youth.

     Even writing these words makes my heart calm into a wistfulness I realize I need on a regular basis. Tell me, tell me about a bookstore you know of, a library you have near you and reassure me that I am not alone in my addiction. Thank you for reading and thank you for listening.