Ode to Used Bookstores

Is there anything better than a used bookstore? I confess, I get excited when I see a crowded parking lot at a big-box bookstore, thinking of all the folks inside whose minds are about to expand. But go into a used bookstore and breathe the peaceful, slightly musty air of the last repository of America's intelligent culture.

Maybe it's because my mom's a librarian, but I find the very presence of books soothing, let alone that wonderful smell in an older library or bookstore. To me, it's the smell of books waiting to be read. Or as Homer Simpson might say, "Mmm... books. (drool)". Okay, or he might not, unless the books were covered in chocolate sauce. I need no such additional temptation.

I recently found a great used bookstore in Colorado Springs, called The Bookman, at the corner of 31st Street and Colorado Ave. The owner was really helpful and kind, and the selection was fantastic. In less than 30 minutes, I was back out the door with a collection of poems published in the New Yorker over 50-plus years, two books of essays by T.S. Eliot, a Vonnegut book that I'd loaned out and was finally replacing, and a thick tome of Finnish mythology. Y'know... a little light reading. I was practically euphoric that I'd come away with such a haul.

I don't think it's just the eclectic inventory that I love, or the out-of-print or hard-to-find editions. I think it's the soul of the books. They've already got personality. Sure, a new book is fun to make one's own, but a used book can inspire great speculation on its former owners' lives, and evokes the feeling of being part of a larger tradition.

Props also to The Renaissance Book Shop in downtown Milwaukee, which for me was one of the highlights of our Thanksgiving road trip. This is one of those incredible bookstores that upon approach, you aren't entirely sure is open, but upon entering, you find yourself in freakin' Biblio-Paradise. Six floors and two buildings of books, books, and more books, the lopsided wooden shelves reaching to the tops of tall ceilings, huge boxes of books stacked in the aisle waiting to be shelved. A word to the wise: use the buddy system, or you'll never leave the store. Make sure you take someone with you who will want to leave in an hour or so, just to ensure you remember to eat again that day.