A Journey to the Bookstore

On The Third Place and the Ordeal of Progress

Perhaps it is my cognitive dissonance that has kept me from wanting to think back on the places I used to hang out at, and ask the dreaded question: was it always this bad? This was the question that racked my brain the other day as on whim, I walked through a Books-A-Million. The major bookstore chains had always had this issue, even the classier Half-Priced Books had its array of trinkets and board games. When I head to the DFW area I find myself taking the time to go to at least two or three HPBs, for the purpose of finding something old or getting Patristic texts at a cheaper price. Such trips are rare treats for me, as I look to the right of my computer desk and there are 14 books just stacked on top of each other. A man has his vices, and for me it is purchasing books I’m not sure I’ll ever get to in this life. I always excuse myself by saying “well at least isn’t drugs, or porn, or any of the modern vices of today.” Nevertheless, walking into that Books-A-Million (B.A.M.) it was like walking into another world.

I know the mainline bookstores have taken a beating, and that it’s the antiques or high-end bookstores that you want to go to if you’re really looking for something (although most of my shopping has been either St. Tikhon’s or St. Vladimir’s Seminary Bookstore as of late.) However the other day I had some time to kill and I thought why not hang out at a bookstore for a bit, see if there might be anything worth my while. The first thing I noticed was the removal of the coffee shop that had been in the store since I first moved here and probably was there when the store was first built. That kind of surprised me, bookstores and coffee shops go hand-in-hand, but perhaps it was easier in the age of social media and competing with Amazon to save up on expensive equipment and wages to just make more room for books or other items.

Yet for me it was this odd feeling of “this is how things are now, huh?”