Books and a Nook!: The Harvard Bookstore-so different, yet so familiar

Thursday, June 7, 2012

The Harvard Bookstore-so different, yet so familiar

I never knew how different bookstores could be! Instead of going to my usual Barnes and Noble store at the Prudential mall, I checked out a small store (although a giant in its own way) called the Harvard Book store and found it as different from Barnes and Noble as chalk from cheese (pardon the cliche!).
Titles I had never heard of, stared at me and books I love were available in every edition possible, something that is horribly amiss at Barnes and Noble with its more commercial culture (by which I mean every random 'best-seller' taking preference over really good books).
In the 'used' book section, I was taken back to my school days when nearly every Sunday morning I and my sister would ask our dad to take us to the curbside bookseller who sold cheap, used paperbacks. The more we bought, the faster they'd all be read. But the brat in me always wished for more.
I was distracted by a woman and her five or six year old, who seemed hesitant at being in the used books section. I heard the mother quietly explain to her daughter that it was a good practice to buy used books until you could afford the new, crisp ones and that way she could have as many as she wanted! I couldn't help feeling slightly ashamed at not being as understanding as the little girl, who promptly started picking out books. That was one of the reasons that made me put back a beautiful, illustrated and annotated hardbound edition of 'The Hobbit' in its place and instead come away with two really inexpensive titles that cost me a total of 10$. It was not because I could not afford to, it was more to check myself from spending money just because I could afford to.
Anyhow, the following is the article that attracted me to the bookstore, (which I had not entered despite passing it by twice every day to and from work). Check out the article AND the bookstore!