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10.8.11

Bookstore Date

One of my favorite places just to go and relax and read and write and hold hands, is our local Barnes and Noble/ Starbucks. What a dang great idea of someone to combine them! The Yeti skipped his Kempo class last night just to take me out, and it was so lovely :)


As I was getting ready, I realized that the color scheme of my outfit exactly matched the colors in this beautiful painting we have hanging in our bedroom. It was painted by an elderly Russian patient of ours here at the office who wanted to find a way to thank us- I loved it so much I was allowed to take it home :) The painting is entitled Desert Memories, and he explained to us that those white structures in the middle panel were maybe ghosts or remnants of the past in some way- he wasn't really sure why he put them there.

While we were shopping, I bought a new journal (of course) and an amazing book called "Geek Love" by Katherine Dunn. I buy a new journal almost every time I go to B&N because I am constantly in search of a replacement for my High School writing jounal. For whatever reason I've never found on as good as it was, but I hope the one I bought last night will be it :) It's leather bound with beautiful but simple stitching as cover decoration, with a colorful braided string to tie around and keep it closed. It also has natural, unlined thin paper- my favorite! :)

To be honest, I was turned away by the title and techno looking cover of "Geek Love", but Calvin read the back to me anyway- and holy cow am I glad! I took it as a cliche nerdy love story, but as it turns out, 'Geek' here is referring to a person in a sideshow act that bites the heads off chickens! The book is about a family of circus 'freaks' bred by their father as attractions for his failing circus. It's been wicked great so far- thanks for the find, Yeti!!

It's got my heart all firey and racing lately that books are going 'out of style'. Ebooks are only 5% of the book buying market right now, but already they've put bohemoth Borders out of business! In all honesty, this terrifies me. Books are beautiful in every way; their weight, crisp pages, fresh ink smell. These are not things I want to live without in any distant future! Please support your local bookstores, it's up to us bibliophiles to keep them alive! Ever since Borders passed away, I've been boycotting Ebooks. Yes- they are convenient, and you can download and read new books while you are in your PJs or on the toilet or at your cousin's wedding- but is that convenience really worth it? Our children never getting to experience that fresh excitment of cracking open a brand new book they've been wanting to read, or never knowing the satisfaction of looking upon their library of adventures and tales and friends on their shelf?
I won't be a part of physical, real, sturdy literature fading away into the past like those white ghost structures. I hope you'll help me.

Have a beautiful day, readers.

7 comments:

  1. I love spending time with you Grace, hearing you talk, feeling your skin. You mean the universe to me and always will. You have such a beautiful way with word's and I absolutely love seeing and hearing what you think and what you have to say. I will always be yours,

    Eternally, Yeti.

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  2. I feel like a dork commenting on your posts!

    But I just got a order online from amazon of 6books about 20minutes ago! I've been head over heels excited for the last 2 days! I've never bought an e-book and never will. There is nothing better than opening a book from the back page and skimming through it. Then realizing, you like it... sitting down with a drink and losing yourself for a day.

    I was too giddy about it! I sat on my bed and wiggled each book in the air at my fiance. He just giggled at me and continued to play video games. But I am a book girl for life. Even if it's just more of a information thing for me now than novels. :/ (i never can find books that catch my thought process.)

    I love your blog. Keep it up! :]

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  3. Woohoo! :D You go Miss Karalin!

    Don't feel like a dork, haha. I love your comments! I'm so glad I'm not alone in book lovin' haha. I get wicked excited to get a new book too, I only WISH I had days to spend devoted to reading them! Right now a just sneak a few pages between phone calls at work :D

    I'm so glad you like it- you need to blog more, I'm sure I'd love yours! :))

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  4. Right after I posted this I noticed you have been blogging more! Yay! :)

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  5. That's a beautiful outfit; those shoes look great. :)

    I'm somewhat neutral in the rise of the ebook... The screens on the ebook readers (like Kindle and the SONY ones) are looking more and more like paper, so now you can enjoy them without eye strain, which adds to those conveniences you mentioned. The ebooks are better for the buyer because they're cheaper to buy usually since publishers don't have to pay the manufacture of physical goods. Which in turn, also makes them better for the author since they get to take home a larger cut of the sales, especially if their independent. Indie authors can flourish (and are flourishing) in this new format that seems to be on its way to be widely accepted. Personally, I support both. I love the feel of an actual book as well, and I don't think collecting first editions will ever go away for bibliophiles such as myself. Perhaps that will be the only saving grace of physical books in the future; the release of limited, perhaps signed, first editions of books.

    Something to ponder. Anywho, have a amazingsauceosaurusomethinglikethat day, my nerdy friend!

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  6. I love books...just like you said, there is nothing better than the smell of a book! Except maybe the smell of the library....I actually considered an ebook once upon a time but changed my mind because I love holding the book...feeling the pages...and you can't browse the ebook and read the back of the book or the book jacket to find out what it's about!

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  7. i don't really think it's just ebooks that are putting places like borders out of business.. i work right next to a borders and a lot of the customers coming from their liquidation sale also drop into my store. in talking to them i've found that, like myself, they still buy books, but are able to find them much cheaper online. i love ordering books on amazon! i can buy so many more books because the prices are so much lower. so in turn, i end up reading more than if i purchased books at a place like borders!

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