hthomas98's Journal

How can I be so attached to a store?  I was talking to my mom today and she told me that The Happy Bookseller is closing.  I am litterally in tears over this.  I am huge book addict and even though that store is 2 states away, I probably bought 90% of my new books there.  Every time I went home, I had to go visit.  This is the bookstore I grew up going to.  They were around before books a million and barnes and noble existed.  They still had the best selection of books I have ever seen.  Not just the top 20, but real literature.  I've found some very little known authors who have amazing stuff in there.  I've stood in line twice to get Pat Conroy's (SC native) signature.  And the employees knew what they were talking about too.  I went in the last time with a very sketchy description of the plot and the author and they were able to find the book for me!  To make matters worse the closing was in my parents' newspaper on Sept 5 and she just told me today!  They are already boxing things up to go back to publishers and are no longer open on weekends, so I can't even go home for a final visit.  She said she hadn't told me b/c I've been so sick with morning sickness, but I would have fought through it to go even if I had pull over every half hour of the 5.5 hour drive to throw up.  I would have paid $4/gallon for the gas to get there.  I just can't believe she didn't tell me.

I'm so upset about this.  It's not like I can't find other places to buy books, but it's not the same.  It's not the same even browsing the shelves in these big places.  It doesn't feel or even smell the same.  Part of the magic of bookstores and libraries for me is the feel of them.  It's so much harder to find hidden gems in the big stores too. Books that would never be heard of in other stores were there in this little store about the size of my house.

I guess I'm going to have to see what I can find in my husband's home town of Chicago.  I know of one cool (and very liberal ) one in Andersonville.