Note: I forgot to allow comments. Oops. It's all fixed now.
I love used book stores. I went to one with my neighbour today in downtown Toronto. From the outside it looked tiny, its width about that of my bedroom. We rifled through the extremely discounted books in a bin outside and laughed when we saw Twilight selling for a dollar. I picked up an interesting book I found there for a price that was still double Twilight's, then we entered the store itself.
French. The. Llama.
Wall to wall books. Tables and tables and tables filled with books. The store stretched back way further than I expected it to, and there was a staircase. There -- there was an upstairs!
So I began to make my way through my literary heaven*, picking up books which I was interested in here and there. They ranged from pretentious literature to philosophy to six word memoirs.** By the time I started to make my way upstairs the man working at the cash register looked slightly worried about the girl with unkempt hair and rainboots carrying a 1.5' stack of books around with her. (Yes, my rainboots were carrying books for me. Why wouldn't they want to help out?) My neighbour was just amused.
Upstairs was the geekier part of the shop. Naturally, I felt in my element. Comics, then Steven Hawking-esque stuff, then the science fiction and fantasy. My pile grew and grew. Then I realized that I had blown half of my money on a gourmet jalapeno Havarti grilled cheese sandwich. I couldn't afford even half of them. Oops.
So I cut down the books to a more manageable six, then still didn't have enough money and reduced my choices to four. At the end I walked away with Ender's Game, this weird artsy novel called What Was Lost, and two Discworld books.
And that is how I completely blew off plans with my best friend for an hour in a bookstore and some really great grilled cheese.
Sorry, Jill.
*The only fault I could find with it was its utter lack of young adult fiction.
** The first six word memoir ever, by Hemingway, read “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”
-Gabi
Random sidenote of the day: "Its" is the possessive, "It's" is the contraction. You can remember this because "his" is possessive and has no apostrophe, so "its" does not have to. Kthxbye.
My Swedish history teacher decided to correct my English and scribbled apostrophes where I had left them out for the possessive. I really dislike my history teacher.
ReplyDeleteAlso, grilled cheese and books? I. Wow. Jealous.
I'm sorry if I reminded you of your history teacher D:
DeleteBut apostrophes bother me.
And yes. It was wonderful.
That sounds like heaven
ReplyDeleteP.S. I didn't know you were a Nerdfighter! DFTBA!
ReplyDeleteI am indeed. =D
DeleteOh, I'm amazed at the people who don't understand the different between its and it's. Then again, I see people who use apostrophes in places that could never even possibly need them, like "alway's." Meaning, belonging to alway. God I hate our generation.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I love a good walk around a nice bookstore, but I have a lot of buying to do before I reach 250. Or catch up to my mother. The number of books she owns is in the thousands.
You are forgiven. I understand the allure of grilled chese and books.
ReplyDeleteGood picks! Ender's Game is awesome (be sure to read the whole series eventually! Also the companion Shadow series.)
ReplyDeleteI've heard discworld is great too, but I fear I may never know for myself... my stack of "to-read" books is ENORMOUS at present!
I love this post! You are amazing. And I'm not just saying that. No books are enough. Well, actually...250 are quite a lot. Maybe there can be too many books...
ReplyDeleteAnyway! Gabi! Listen up and listen up good. I'm advertising on all the blogs I know and don't you think I'd forget about yours! The Toble Chronicles has just launched our forums at lizardworm.com/forums. Go there and check it out. No one exactly is really there yet (YET!) but hopefully in no time it will be filled with interesting people saying interesting things and talking about politics, philosophy, and their favorite ice cream flavors.
And if you have any friends interested in web comics, share The Toble Chronicles with them, or just invite them to the forums! It can be a place to just hang out and chat with friends--whether from real life or blog life. (It's a thing.)
Check it out? Please? For me?