If bookstores were properly categorized…
Oh, how I wish I could take credit for this one! Here is a delightful excerpt from Italo Calvino’s If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler. Book lovers near and far will be able to relate to this!
Sections in the Bookstore
- Books You Haven’t Read
- Books You Needn’t Read
- Books Made for Purposes Other than Reading
- Books Read Even Before You Open Them, Since They Belong to the Category of Books Read Before Being Written
- Books That if You Had More than One Life, You Would Certainly Also Read, but Unfortunately Your Days Are Numbered
- Books You Mean to Read But There Are Others You Must Read First
- Books Too Expensive Now and You’ll Wait ‘Til They’re Remaindered
- Books ditto When They Come Out in Paperback
- Books You Can Borrow from Somebody
- Books That Everybody’s Read So It’s as if You Had Read Them, Too
- Books You’ve Been Planning to Read for Ages
- Books You’ve Been Hunting for Years Without Success
- Books Dealing with Something You’re Working on at the Moment
- Books You Want to Own So They’ll Be Handy Just in Case
- Books You Could Put Aside Maybe to Read This Summer
- Books You Need to Go with Other Books on Your Shelves
- Books That Fill You with Sudden, Inexplicable Curiosity, Not Easily Justified
- Books Read Long Ago Which It’s Now Time to Re-read
- Books You’ve Always Pretended to Have Read and Now It’s Time to Sit Down and Really Read Them
- Books You Love but Wouldn’t Be Caught Dead Holding on the Subway**
- Books You’ve Lent to Someone, but You Can’t Remember Who**
- Books to Inspire Your Own Writing**
This is a pretty thorough list, but if you have any to add, please do so in the comment section. The double-asterisks (**) are my own additions.
Happy reading – er browsing, and then reading!
Laura
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