BOOKSTORE MEDITATIONS
I’ve spent enough time in bookstores – as both an employee and a customer – to know that, in many ways, they are small representations of the world at large. They have sections on birth (where you’ll find titles such as What To Expect When You’re Expecting) and sections on death (On Grief and Grieving, How to Prepare a Last Will and Testament, etc.). They have sections devoted to food, health, money, crime, love, parenting, art, entertainment, travel, history, politics, philosophy, religion, and much more. To get the most out of your visits to the bookstore, consider the following recommendations from someone who has probably spent more time in bookstores than in any other type of commercial establishment.
DON’T BE A ONE-SHELF READER.
The one-shelf reader, like the person with tunnel vision, tends to focus on just a single thing obsessively. At the bookstore where I work, I have a customer who reads only cozy mystery novels with culinary themes. Most of these books have silly, punning titles: Affairs of Steak, Chili Con Corpses, The Long Quiche Goodbye, Cloche and Dagger, Finger-Lickin’ Dead, Delicious and Suspicious, A Batter of Life and Death, Dead Men Don’t Get the Munchies – you get the point. This customer is a kind and friendly woman. I always enjoy her visits. But it’s difficult to engage her in conversation for very long. She doesn’t seem to have many interests outside of cozy culinary mysteries. Generally, the more sections a regular customer of mine visits, the more interesting he or she is to talk to. If you want to be a well-rounded person, visit as many sections as you can in the bookstore of life. This doesn’t mean that you have to master every discipline known to mankind. There’s nothing wrong with preferring histories or mysteries or romances to all other kinds of books. But you shouldn’t let your favorite genre of book become your only genre of book, any more than you should let your favorite kind of food – say, pizza – become the only thing you ever eat. It’s nice to know what you like, but it’s also nice to remain open to new experiences.
READ A FEW PAGES FIRST
Just as you wouldn’t buy a car without first test-driving it, you shouldn’t buy a book without first reading a few pages of it, even if it comes heavily recommended by Oprah Winfrey, President Obama, and Pope Francis. People are as various as snowflakes. Just because everyone you know loves a particular title doesn’t meant that you’ll like it too. You can save yourself a lot of wasted time and money by always reading a few pages of a book before deciding whether to buy it.
NEVER BE TOO OLD TO ENJOY CHILDISH THINGS
I honestly believe that the children’s section of the bookstore contains more wisdom than can be found in the self-help section. We sell children’s books about the importance of sharing with others (The Boy Who Wouldn’t Share, The Rainbow Fish), about resisting conformity (The Story of Ferdinand), about dealing with divorce (My Family’s Changing, Where Am I Sleeping Tonight? My Bonus Mom), about dealing with the death of a loved one (Someone I Love Died, The Invisible String, and Are You Sad, Little Bear?), about LGBT issues (This is My Family, Jack and Jim, The Different Dragon), and a lot of other subjects that you might not expect to find in a section aimed at little children – some of whom are too young to read.
What’s more, if you were an enthusiastic reader as a child, then there’s no better way to reconnect with your childhood than by reacquainting yourself with the adventures of Babar or Madeline or Curious George. And if you find yourself feeling left out when you hear other people discussing Where the Sidewalk Ends or The Lonely Doll or some other classic children’s books that no one ever read to you when you were a child, remember that it’s never too late to fill the gaps in your cultural education. Just as you don’t have to be a literary professor to purchase a copy of Ulysses, you don’t have to be a child – or even have any children of your own – to purchase a copy of The Cat in the Hat or Miss Masham’s Repose. Self-help authors frequently urge readers to get in touch with their inner child. There is no better place to do that than in a bookstore with a really good selection of children’s books.
DON’T BE AFRAID TO BUY TRASHY BOOKS
Nobody likes that guy at the backyard barbecue who points out how fattening potato chips are, or how bad red meat is for your digestive system. Life would be no fun if you didn’t occasionally eat food that is bad for you, blow off a trip to the gym, and watch moronic sitcoms on TV. Likewise, I can’t imagine devouring a steady diet of books that are good for me. My favorite guilty literary pleasure is the old pulp western. I’m not talking about highly-regarded literature of the west, such as True Grit, Lonesome Dove, or Little Big Man. I’m talking about cheap paperback originals from the 1950s and 60s with titles like The Law of The Gun, Ride Into Danger, and Death Stalks Yellow Horse. Man does not live by Proust alone (I don’t live by Proust at all). Indulge your passion for literary comfort food whenever you feel the need.
READ ASPIRATIONALLY
This is the flipside of the previous entry. In the bookstore, as in life, you should dream big. If you’ve always wished you were the kind of person who could enjoy daunting literary classics such as Moby Dick or War and Peace, then go ahead and be that person. Book clerks don’t require you to pass any kind of test before purchasing a book. You don’t have to look professorial in order to purchase a copy of James Joyce’s Ulysses or Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow. Don’t read only the books you think someone of your intellect and educational level should read. Read the books that the person you want to be would read. Read books that challenge your preconceived notions about religion, politics, history, the environment, finance, and other topics. It’s not enough to visit numerous sections of the bookstore. Every now and then you should expand your mind by sampling the best of the best. Read things that you fear might be over your head. And don’t be ashamed if it turns out that they are over your head. Someday, all those difficult words, sentences, and ideas may start to make sense to you. You can apply this advice to other venues of life as well. It seems to me that those who read boldly are more likely to live boldly too.