Bookstore Shopping with My Dad

From Kate's Writing Crate...


     After I learned to read, I learned to love book shopping.

     I am not a shopper by nature--my mother and siblings got that gene. I prefer to stay home with a good book like my dad. However, we all got dragged to the mall one weekend a month when I was growing up.

     After 45 minutes or so, my dad would say he was heading to the bookstore and I would grab his hand when really young or start walking away with him when older before my mother could tell me to stay.

     Once we arrived in the bookstore, I would rush to my favorite section which changed as I aged. It was a long, narrow store and my father was taller than the shelves. He could usually see me or he kept an eye out that I did not get past him to the door--as if I would ever walk away from books without being called!

     I felt so grown up. I could browse the shelves before I knew the word browse looking for books I liked all by myself. Heaven!

     I always found a few books, occasionally more than a few. I would carry them to my dad who would gather them up and take them to the counter. I would stand beside him as they were bagged separately so I could carry them myself. That always made the rest of the shopping trip bearable.

     My dad and I went to a bookstore recently--something we hadn't done in a long while as our favorite bookstore had closed years ago. It was a fun outing; we weren't escaping from the rest of the family and now we go to a lot of the same sections even sharing a few favorite authors like Louis L'Amour and Suzanne Brockmann's SEAL series.

     Happily, some things never change. We gather our books separately, but put them in the same basket. Dad carries them to the counter and has mine put into a separate bag, more because we live apart now, but I am so glad we still love to go bookstore shopping together. 

What memories of bookstores do you have?