I’m Going To A Used Book Store Today!

(image via wikimedia)

I just realized today that the bookstores in my area are open!  So many stores have been closed for so long that I forgot that the places I used to like could reopen when everything else reopens.  So today I am finally going to a used book store

I haven’t been in a used book store for a long time.  Even before the abbreviated horror closed everything down, I hadn’t visited for a while.  A few years ago, I sold most of my book collection to help pay off debt (and clear up clutter), and I began using our public library for fresh reading material.

Even though I made the right decision in selling the books, I could have used some of those books right over the last few months.  A bunch of them were old paperbacks that I knew I wouldn’t read again, so they were just wasted sitting on my shelves.  I’m pretty sure I sold them to people who’d read them.  If not, that’s the new owners’ fault, not mine.  I did my part by parting with the books.

But I could really use a used book store right now.  I miss being surrounded by old paperback books, even if I know I won’t read them all.  I can find almost all those old books online now.  Access isn’t a problem.  It’s just that I want a real book.  Most of my work is done on a computer now.  A lot of my entertainment is on my phone now.  I want real books so that I’m not staring at a screen all the time.

Right now I’m reading The Spy Who Came In From The Cold by John LeCarre.  I’ve had this book since I was in high school, but I’ve never read it.  When I sold my books, I kept it because I hadn’t read it yet.  Now I’m reading it because the libraries and used book stores are closed.

I have other old pulpy books that I didn’t get rid of.  I kept my Horatio Hornblower books because my dad had them as a kid and some of them are good.  I kept a bunch of old Isaac Asimov books.  I also kept a bunch of sword & sorcery from the 1960s and 1970s because it had been so difficult to find before the internet.  If I had struggled to find certain books before the internet, I usually get attached to them.  I worked to get those books, dagnabbit!

Even with all these old books still in my closet, I’m looking forward to going to a used book store.  I’m going to walk up and down the paperback aisles and browse through the fantasy section, the mystery/thriller section, the fiction/literature section.  I’m going to find a few old paperbacks that are almost falling apart, even if they haven’t been sanitized recently.  I’m going to take my time, even if there’s a line outside because of 25-50% capacity (I don’t know which).

I promise that I’ll wear a mask.  I’ll even wear more than one mask if necessary.  I’ll hold my breath the entire I’m in the store.  I’ll social distance and keep a thermometer in my ear the whole time, I promise.

I might even buy something.