Photo: L. Weikel

A Peculiar Attitude Toward Books          

I’ve only got a few minutes to jot down some thoughts. I was drawing a total blank as to what to write about this evening, because most of my day was spent in a session.

I started flicking through recent photos I’ve taken with my iPhone hoping to snag some inspiration from them.

Lo and behold, I came upon the photo of the notice we discovered in one of the other bookstores in Asheville (not linked in yesterday’s post).

I took the photo because the attitude just felt astonishingly unwelcoming and, well, snooty.

This was photo was taken in a bookstore. This bookstore featured an abundance of chairs and tables, even tables with empty champagne flutes (which I assume get filled on occasion, although we certainly didn’t wait to find out if and when). On many levels, this purveyor of pages seemed to be the quintessentially chill, abundantly decadent version of a Barnes & Noble or long-demised Borders.

And then we saw the sign photographed above. All over the place. I honestly wonder if the vibe of this place could have been less reader-friendly.

I’m guessing that, in spite of their signs, this establishment is not primarily in the business of selling books. Or maybe I just misunderstand their target audience.

Perhaps they serve people who traffic in rare, out of print, or one-of-a-kind tomes that never get read and prefer champagne to a rich cup of coffee and a book with which they can curl up and get lost in another world for a while…

I know when I’ve found where I’m wanted and welcomed. It wasn’t this place.

(T-926)