Kid in a Bookstore

I really wanted another book I could sink my teeth into. So after work, I went to the new Border's at Wayside Commons. The bookstore was empty -- it was cold and late in the evening. I felt like I had it all to myself. As I patrolled the aisles, just skimming through everything, I suddenly regained an old feeling I used to have as a kid--excitement! Sheer excitement from being in a bookstore. I used to run into the old Waldenbooks at Kings Plaza when I was young and go straight to the Sweet Valley High section. I would treat myself to the latest addition to the series and go home real happy. I'm not sure where all that excitement for reading went. For a long time, books just didn't hold the same thrill they used to for me. It was nevertheless, a treat to run my hands across the smooth paperbacks and marvel at all the different packaging of various reprints. Perhaps Amazon has taken the thrill out of book-shopping for me. Maybe it's the experience of looking up through all the stacks and stacks of books and then carefully selecting one; taking it home and then cracking open the new volume and flipping to a crisp new page. So what new treasure did I acquire? Well, I got Wally Lamb's This Much I Know Is True. It's a whopper -- 900 pages! I'm looking forward to it though. The saddest part is always when a good book ends and you feel like you're forced to say goodbye to an old friend. A long, involved read holds a lot of promise in this way...like, "stick with me and you won't be sorry, we're in it for the long-haul!" ;)