I can’t resist a great bookstore or even a not so great bookstore. Wherever I travel, bookstores are always on my list of places to visit. I’ve been trying hard to stop buying books and use the library instead…because…you know…there is only so much space on my many bookshelves at home. And I’ve been better. I’m becoming quite good at managing my Libby app. But…I still can’t resist a visit to a bookstore.

So when today’s Verselove prompt was an invitation to tell a literary memory, my bookstore addiction popped into my head, compounded by my need to visit the local Barnes and Noble in my son’s town today. (And true confessions, I didn’t resist today!)

I’m Addicted to Bookstores

Breathe in the smell of new books

words floating in the air

tickling that part of my brain

that loves stories

intoxicating

Shelves stacked high

tables teetering too

like cairns of rocks

balancing fiction, poetry, nonfiction, biography, memoir

When is enough enough?

What number of books is the right amount?

Is it even possible to have too many books?

My fingers trace the titles I’ve read

characters whispering

their lines of dialogue in my ears

I see the one that got away

pick it up

to reread the blurb on the back

My library queue is loaded

but the covers cry out

tantalizing instant gratification

over the hands-off library wait

Can I justify just this one?

The one I read, then he reads, they read…

Even when I don’t buy

I still can’t stay away

from that

intoxicating

word-filled

wonderland

A playground for readers

like me

@kd0602