When I take my lunch breaks, the part I find the most exciting is when I’ll visit the local bookshop. Personally, I find bookshops much more exciting than other shops and I think there are several reasons for this.
First of all, as a writer, bookshops are an excellent source of inspiration. Of course, books themselves are the ultimate source of inspiration, but often I find that just reading blurbs and getting an idea of the concepts behind books will be enough to springboard me to more exciting ideas of my own.
Second of all, there’s a lot of potential in bookshops. For me, most books are quite an emotional experience (if they’re any good.) So when I walk around a bookshop and browse the books, I’m really browsing several different emotional experiences, all contained within the ink printed upon sheets of paper. No matter how amazing and moving the books I’ve already read may have been, there could just be something even better out there… that is a very exciting thought.
I also think of it like this: when I person writes a book, they’re transcribing a trail of thought. A trail of thought is a brief second in a person’s life, but through the miracle of written communication, a bookshop manages to capture these isolated moments and experiences from people from all around the world (and from through history) and it connects them all together, by placing them side by side. It’s quite amazing to thing of the many chains of events which lead to a bookshop.
Then, of course, there’s the fact that in the past I have visited bookshops with friends and it’s been a very nice shared experience. While I may not have anybody to visit them with now, there is a slight nostalgic element at play, for sure.
These are all feelings which cannot be evoked by a game shop, supermarket, toy shop or any other kind of shop and its why I’ll always love browsing a bookshop.
