Writing Skillet #4 - Why I Appreciate Physical Bookshops

It's been a busy week and I admit I was tempted to forgo recording the podcast. But - CONSISTENCY! So I decided to record anyway, even though I don't have too much to talk about. Last week, I was lucky enough to visit a couple bookshops in the flesh, which was amazing, and I wanted to support them in my own small way, so I...Bought Some Books.

Some people do crazy book hauls. You may never see me buy more than five books at a time, even if they're used:

Aspects of the Novel - E.M. Forster - Yay, another craft book! From the author of "Room With a View" which I admit I remember nothing about except the description of the view. This looked like an excellent little book and hopefully I can share what I glean from it in future posts / episodes.

Letters from a Skeptic - Dr. Gregory Boyd and Edward Boyd - I'm actually reading this right now via my Kindle app and it is excellent. It is the correspondence of a father and son debating the difficult bits of Christianity, like "Why is there so much suffering in the world?" "Is God really all knowing?" etc. It is really making me think thus far.

Merchants of Culture - John Thompson - This is an analysis on the publishing business in the twenty-first century, and while it was written in 2010, I'm still eager to read what this guy has to say. (He's a professor at Cambridge.) There's also an appendix of publishing houses and imprints in the back. It looks a little dry but still excites me.

Starman Jones - Robert A. Heinlein - I had to buy this book for the nostalgia factor! And no, I have not even read it. But the cover and everything about it reminded me of growing up, and my brother used to talk about Starman Jones constantly.

The Spirit Ring - Lois McMaster Bujold - It's a signed paperback! I love The Curse of Chalion, so I'm excited to read another fantasy by this acclaimed female author.

Bookshop Feels

On to the bookshop feels. The one in which I got the most feels was The Book House in Dinkytown, Minneapolis, and it was truly a great experience. To enter, I climbed a flight of stairs and on either side of me the walls were plastered with magazine cutouts and newspaper clippings and it's like one huge collage. Once I reached the actual shop, everything was very tall. Immediately to my left, there was this tower almost to the ceiling of philosophy books, and I was constantly looking upward my entire time inside. The aisles are small, so I kind of squeezed my way around the counter, and all the little sections and nooks are small too, so it felt like I was weaving through this honeycomb of books, but they all rose so high above my head. History, war, science, politics...there was so. Much. Knowledge. So much knowledge on every side of me that I could not take it all in. Rooms and rooms of this magic. There was something about the books being used that made them feel like they had a richer presence as well.

All this to say, I kind of realized something I appreciate about physical bookshops. When I walked in there, the feeling I had was something I would never feel when ordering a book online. I felt so small. I was overwhelmed by all I wanted to learn about and research, and I was blown away by all the experts who had already researched and written and read the material towering over me at that very moment.

I can fully appreciate that feeling of smallness as an artist, a writer, and a learner. I should feel small, like I'm just getting started and I don't know anything, paired with the excitement to learn more.

It's crazy how that smallness contrasts with the opposite experience of taking your phone in your hand to order a book online. You can hold entire worlds in that one hand. If that doesn't feel like power, I don't know what does. It's only the illusion of power, but we feel it nonetheless. We can pick up whole worlds, touch a few buttons, and order a book in seconds. There is no smallness there!

I hadn't noticed this contrast before but I'm still thinking about it.... the relationship between technology and the physical world has always interested me and I'd love to hear your thoughts as well. Have you ever experienced this feeling?