If there is one place on this planet where I would willingly give up my sanity, it would be inside a bookstall. It need not be a fancy place that tries to justify the price of the book you are inclined to buy from there by calling itself a bookstore, for we know that books ain't come cheap nowadays.
The word 'bookstall', for some reason, instantly sounds a bit more synonymous with affordability, in comparison with the word 'bookstore'. Specially if the bookstall deals with second hand books. Talking about second hand books, there are very few things that beat the concept of a book being passed from person to person. A few thing that do beat this concept are chocolate, coffee, and adrenaline!
I had just watched this movie 'Chef', written, directed, produced and played by Jon Favreau, who's only earlier role I recognized, was 'Happy', Tony Stark's body guard in Iron Man. Firstly, why would Tony Stark need a 'Body-Guard'? What was the suit for? Eh? Specially after his 'I am Iron Man' stunt?
Just for the record, 'Chef' is a really good movie!
After the movie, my sister had a few things to purchase(as usual), so he left me to my own devices, namely my watch and my cell-phone. And lo and behold! The first thing I saw outside the theater was... A bookstore!! The fancy kind!
What more could I ask? 2 hours, a huge room full of books and myself! And more importantly, as long as the shop owner didn't force me into buying a book from the store, in case the shop's POLICY didn't allow free reading, I was free to read stuff for FREE!!! You already get a sense of freedom, don't you?
Let me tell you the most gratifying sight in a bookstall! The most gratifying sight in a bookstall is the sight of a book kept there on a shelf that you have already read. The sense of gratification is tenfold if you managed to get hold of the book at a nominal price, specially if the book costs a fortune straight off the shelf!!
After filling my 'gratification' quota of the day, I moved around a bit into their 'movies' section. I rarely go into a bookstore with the intention of emptying my pockets into there, until I am feeling unreasonably generous to donate money. I usually go there to catch hold of movie and book titles that I think would be interesting. I make a not of them, loiter about here and there, and quietly leave the place, and then search for the cheapest possible place where I can get hold of the titles I had made a not of earlier in the bookstore. Nifty, eh? And I very blatantly accept my cheapness. I think it' a virtue!
So my today''s visit to the bookstall was no different. Got hold of a lot of interesting titles of books and movies that I hadn't heard of earlier, or had forgotten about them.
There was a book about Hitler getting out of his grave sometime in 2011, only to find that the world had come far from where he had left it in what? 1945? I mean, Duh! But the concept sounded brilliant! I hope I can get my hands on that book sometime soon! After seeing the price tag on the book although, I have postponed that soon to some time in future.
After window shopping through the bookstore, and going really mental about choosing a book for my 2 hour wait, I was really upset. I was hoping that I would run into a nerdy looking girl whom I could start a bookish conversation with. Alas! No luck. I could have even settled for a not-so-nerdy-looking lady in my vicinity. But again, alas! So I went back to re-sifting through all the shelves the bookstore had on display, this time, my search being a lot more diligent than the last time. But there is a disadvantage in being so sincere in your quest for reading material. You just end up wanting to read everything there is on display! Now this, we know, is not possible unless you happen to be Will Hunting from the movie Goodwill hunting, where you can finish off a book by just flipping through it's pages once, and toss it aside with an air of accomplishment. I swear on my life, that if I were granted one superpower ever!! IFF EVVER!! I would choose super-reading speed as my superpower. Okay, I guess I sound super nerdy when I say that. But then that's true...
Besides, inside a bookstore, where the walls are quite literally MADE of books, psychedelia pretty much hits you right in the head. The colors look so tempting! For some reason, orange looks very pleasing on books. Specially when they are accompanied by an oval with a penguin inside the oval, if you know what I mean. Enough about me tripping on books!
Thankfully, I did run into a book that I thought would be worth my time. It was something about this guy, some Dan *Something*. The book was about this chap doing a study about intelligence, wherein he was planning on increasing his intelligence by traditionally suggested methods such as mind training, exercise, diet change, listening to Mozart, so on and so forth. It was also about how many, if not most of these methods, commonly believed to spike intelligence, were most often mere speculations with no serious backing from research.
While I was in the process of reading the book, my sister called. Shit!!! How come she's done with her shopping? This has never happened before! What was this? Her attempt at the world records for her shortest shopping session? With only an hour and a half, she must have easily beaten her previous time by a day, FLAT!!
Sadly, I didn't have the cash, nor the heart to purchase this book on intelligence by this 'Dan' chap. A good read though. And so, with a heavy heart, and thankfully not a lighter wallet, I left the bookstore.
I was rather pleased with myself for not giving into the obligatory purchases that I make out of guilt at a bookshop for making myself too comfortable inside one.
And that's how, I trotted out of that beautiful space!
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