4.10.2006

Strand


I love to read. I always have loved to read. I remember nights when I was a kid, staying up until late at night just to finish a book. Have you ever noticed that when you feel like you "just have a little bit more before you finish" that it always ends up taking a few more hours instead of the 15 minutes you think it will take? I can spend hours in the bookstore. I would love to have an enormous library in my house. One full room devoted to books and the reading of books. Ideally, it would have a large window, some maps, a few comfortable chairs, perhaps a globe, lamps for those all night reading sessions, and most importantly, shelves and shelves of books. My mom tells me that I'm old-fashioned and that books will all be transferred to computers. I hope that isn't true since I especially love old books. I went to Strand (www.strandbooks.com)
in the East Village on Saturday to pick up a few books. Strand has "18 miles of new, used, rare, and out of print books". It's a wonderful bookstore. I bought a copy of "The Princess and the Goblin" by George MacDonald. It is a lovely children's book. If you haven't read it, you definitely should. Inside, I found an old receipt for when the book was originally purchased. The date was 1988 and it was purchased for $2.98 at Barnes & Noble on 5th Avenue. Eighteen years later, I bought it for $1.99 at Strand. I love knowing that it is an old book that someone else once enjoyed so I kept the receipt in the book. Maybe in another 10 years, someone will read the book and find the receipt and appreciate the character of the book.

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