Wednesday, June 20, 2007

I found this here

Thank you Regina.



She Talks With Books

I am the owner of a little bookshop- shop, not store... where each book is lovingly placed precisely on the shelf of its choosing that it whispered to me during a late night sojourn, thus forcing the prospective book buyer to become one with their bookmate in order to find its exact location in this strange little bookshop that seems to shine from the inside out and where the books talk to each other and invite each other over for tea and crumpets...

Upon finding said bookmate, the eccentric owner of said bookshop- me, dressed in flowers and ribbons, begins to tell them of all the wonders this book has to share and why one can never really own a book- why, it's the other way 'round, you see... and how one must treat their new companion as if one were holding the world in the palm of their hands, which, of course, they are, as this secret bookmate of yours will take you on one long, beautiful trip inside yourself...

I know, I get those kinds of looks all the time, those looks that say, "Is she crazy or am I for walking into this place?" but being eccentric as I have been for lo, these many years, one gets used to being looked at strangely... perhaps that is why I became the owner of a bookshop, where the books merely long to be looked at and I swiftly re-direct their gaze from me to the book they hold and say, "Can you not see all that there is to offer you here in these pages?" and they look and soon become one again with the fantastical smudges on paper called words and I leave them to it...

They walk out soon after, relishing their bookmate, nestled safely amongst the beat of the heart, and as they leave, they wonder if the place where they spent what seems like a lifetime really existed but yes, it must have because here is the book that called to them and they listened and they swore to secretly return to the little eccentric bookshop and the eccentric bookshop's owner that somehow, in the same light, both truly dazzled and warmed the space in between the longing and the wanting...

As for me, I return among the whisperings and secret meetings of historical biographies and romantic fiction and perilous mysteries and sweet poetry and they all quiet themselves as they think, "Here comes the eccentric one again who thinks that because she owns a bookshop that she owns the books as well...", but I hear them and I think...

"I'm not that eccentric..."

1 comment:

janaki said...

:) :)

Its true .... our books talk and sing to us. And one thing is for sure, i'm proud of my co-authors. You guys come up with such wonderful delights !