There was a time when going to the bookstore was a planned ritual. At the start of every vacation, an expedition to the largest bookstore in the city would be arranged by the parents. I would be let loose upon that jungle soon after the store commenced business for the day, and given free rein. At the end of hours of scouring, heart-wrenching choices and intense decision-making , I would settle upon my chosen pile. And then the whole family lived happily for the course of my vacation. Such was the idyllic world of my schooldays.
For many years now, I haven't chanced upon a bookstore. I have stepped into fancy superstores masquerading as bookstores. Stores that hawk an assortment of music CDs, videogames and the ilk, while relegating the bookracks to an unobtrusive corner where they don't disturb the jazzed up sections that display the fancier stuff. There have been times when I walked into what once used to be a bookstore, and had to wade through displays of varieties of chocolate, computer peripherals and a zillion other things that have no business in a booklovers' paradise, before chancing upon the books themselves. I could have cried with relief when I found out that they hadn't done away with the books altogether!
And after all these years, I found a bookstore today. Yeah, I'm talking about a real 'book' store. One where you walk in, to be greeted by rack upon glorious rack of tomes. Tomes, waiting to be released from the rack, their heady 'new book' fragrance setting your brain tingling with anticipation of a long afternoon turning pages. Pages, that hold you in thrall, immerse you in their tale, such that the thought of looking up from your book never crosses your head. But, I digress! I felt as though I was in a time warp, transported magically to the days when bookshops used to be just what they were supposed to be. A store such as this, untouched by the ravages of commercialization, exuding an old world library-like charm, is rare in these days indeed.
Fellow bibliophiles, there is yet hope in these dark times!
