The Bookstore

I visited a wonderful bookstore this past weekend.
Shelves that almost touched the ceiling lined the walls.
Rare, used, and new books filled every crevice.
The store was divided in sections according to category.

I headed first to the children’s section.
I perused the shelves and saw spines of books that I immediately recognized.
I watched a mother read a book to her child at one of the tables.
Memories came flooding back to the times I read to my own children.

A lecture was going on in an adjacent room.
People were sitting at high top tables; some were on laptops, some were reading.
Most everyone was sipping coffee or tea.
An adorable cafe greeted you as you walked in the front door.

I could have spent an entire afternoon there.
I would have been perfectly content among the stacks of books.
I remembered a little bookstore in the town where I grew up.
I remembered my dream.

I loved going to the little bookstore in my town.
That is where I bought the books I needed to read for school.
That is where I bought books I wanted to read.
That bookstore and the library were my favorite places to visit.

While perusing the bookstore shelves as a girl, I remember listening to the employees.
I would hear them talk to customers in the store and on the phone.
It seemed to me that no question was too difficult for them to answer.
They knew where to find every book, they knew every author, and they made suggestions.

I wanted to be just like them.
I wanted to have my own bookstore one day.
I wanted to be that knowledgeable about all sorts of books, not just the ones I liked.
I wanted to see the spines of books and know every one.

In my mind’s eye, I could picture the store that didn’t have a name.
It would have pots of flowers in front.
It would have comfy chairs to sit in.
It would be a place where I knew everyone who came through the door.

This was in the day before the Internet.
This was in the day of calling the store to have them locate a book for you.
Weeks later, you received a call that your book was in and could be picked up.
The HOLD pile was behind the register, on the floor taking up all the room.

A piece of paper with your name written on it was stuck in the center of the book.
The employee had to look among the stacks to find the book that was being held.
Somehow the system worked, and worked efficiently.
It was personal and friendly and I wanted a store just like it.

Maybe that’s why I enjoy the movie, You’ve Got Mail so much.
Like Kathleen Kelly, owner of The Shop Around The Corner, being personal mattered.
What’s so wrong with being personal? She asked Joe Fox, the owner of a mega bookstore.
Whatever else anything is, it ought to begin by being personal.

Being personal mattered.
I wanted a bookstore where I knew everyone’s name.
I wanted a bookstore with that small town feel.
I could relate to the way Kathleen Kelly described her mother.

Kathleen’s mother had opened the bookstore and Kathleen helped there after school.
After her mother died, Kathleen became the owner and continued her mother’s vision.

It wasn’t that she was just selling books; she was helping people become whatever they were going to be. Because when you read a book as a child, it becomes part of your identity in a way that no other reading in your whole life does.

That is what I inherently knew.
Though it wasn’t always that way.
When I was growing up, I did not like to read.
I would read fast and not comprehend sufficiently.

That would be something my teachers would always tell my mother.
If she would just slow down and remember what she reads.
It wasn’t speed as much as it was uninteresting reading material.
That all changed one day in the school library.

It was library day and we were to choose our book for the week.
I would usually pick easy books or books with interesting covers.
One day, I saw a book with a spine that was a beautiful royal blue color.
I pulled the book off the shelf and noticed that the generic cover had writing on it.

The title and author were handwritten in a white marker.
It was the biography of Benjamin Franklin.
I fingered that book with the blue cover that caught my eye.
I checked out the book at the circulation desk.

I went home and began to read.
Franklin began the first library and the first volunteer firefighting company.
Franklin invented the lightning rod, the Franklin stove, and bifocals.
Franklin was an avid chess player.

I learned things about this Founding Father that I had never known.
Interesting things.
Things that went beyond my textbooks.
Things that seemed to matter to me.

To this day, I still enjoy reading non-fiction books.
I attribute that to the library book with the royal blue cover all those years ago.
Reading became a joy to me.
Reading to learn became a passion of mine.

Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written. (John 21:25)

Now, I love to read; I am passionate about one Book in particular.
The Bible, which is the Word of God.
The only book that is living and active.
The only book that is unchanging; the only book that is inerrant.

Never changing and always true.
A book that is read for comprehension and read for application.
A book that is read not for head knowledge but for heart knowledge.
A book that you will never completely discover no matter how many times you read it.

I have never known such a Book.
God’s Word is my treasure.
A quote attributed to Mark Twain says it best.
The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them.

Being unable to read is not advantageous.
Being able to read but not reading is unwise.
Being able to read though not reading God’s Word is foolish.
Reading God’s Word but not putting it into practice is disobedient.

Whatever else anything is, it ought to begin by being personal.
A personal relationship with the one, true God.
The God who makes himself known through His Word.
Have you read any good books lately?