I got an e-mail from somebody who read yesterdays post about why men don’t read fiction. The e-mailer said that he doesn’t read much fiction, but he reminded me that non-fiction books can also provide great opportunities for introspection. I totally agree with him. In fact, I’ve written a number of posts about such books:
Things We Couldn’t Say
Loneliness, Part 1
Loneliness, Part 2
Blue Like Jazz
Taunting
The e-mailer went on to share his normal book store pattern. He first goes to the business section, then the history section, then he visits current events, and he sometimes makes his way to the biographies. His e-mail got me to thinking about my own book store pattern. Those of us who frequent book stores all have them, don’t we?
I usually stop at the display table in front of the store to peruse the new releases. Then I head to the literature section, followed by visits to Christian living, current events, history, the bargain bin, and once in a while sports—baseball in particular. Occasionally, I’ll shake things up and check out the writing and business sections.
You can tell a lot about a person by where he gravitates in a book store—especially if he doesn’t feel like he has to impress anybody. If you hang out with friends long enough in a bookstore, you’ll eventually find out what really matters to them and what doesn’t—based simply on the sections they visit and which ones they ignore.
Occasionally, when I’m making my own trek through a book store, I think about how cool it would be to reach for the latest release by Richard Ford, or Brian Morton, or Jan Karon at the exact same moment a 30-something year-old single female does and…well, okay, that sounds more like a romantic comedy from the DVD section. But a guy can dream, can’t he?
