Today, I took one of my grandchildren to a Barnes and Noble Bookstore. We have often done this before and I have been doing this for all of my children and grandchildren although not necessarily Barnes and Noble.
They are fun places to go. Barnes and Nobles are well lighted, have places in the store to buy coffee and other drinks, chairs, overstuffed chairs and lots and lots of books. They have a corner of the store that is for kids only and staff willing to work with kids and adults so they can find the book they want. There are sales of 50% off merchandise and books, sale priced books and fully priced books.
If you are short on funds, it is fun just to sit and go through the books. My grandson did that today and looked through a book that had pictures and text about tree-houses all over the world. I really had fun with this book. I did not know such tree-houses existed. There was one tree-house in France that looked like a ship (gallon) and the inside looked like a captain's cabin. There was a tree-house that belonged to the singer, Sting.
I ended up buying a magazine that was about writing and a book for my grandson that was about
time travel. He went through many books before he sent his mind on that one. I told him how I choose books. I always read the first page, a random page but never the ending. My mother always reads the endings because she does not want "an unhappy ending."When I was a kid, there were few bookstores in the small town I grew up in, but I could take the public bus and go into town where there were a bunch of wonderful second-hand bookstores which I patronized regularly although I was very poor. There were bookstores that sold new books too but I could not afford them. My family never took me to them nor to the library although a relative did. It was how I discovered books
and a life-long passion for learning.
