Monday, December 04, 2006
A pic borrowed from Google images...The Singing River Mall in Gautier, Mississippi, is not much of a mall. In spite of that fact, Santa Claus himself was there tonight, but when I walked by his little Christmas land, he was sitting all alone. I avoided eye contact with him, figuring he must have been a bit embarrassed. I was embarrassed for him. I mean, when Santa Claus can’t get some love…
But the Singing River Mall is five minutes from my house, and it has a bookstore, so the combination of those two facts led me to spend some time there tonight.
The main reason I went was because Book 8 in the Lemony Snicket “Series of Unfortunate Events” that I checked out from the library was missing the last chapter. Not wanting to buy the entire book to read one chapter, I decided to visit the bookstore and stand there long enough to finish the book. I wasn’t surprised to learn that those Baudelaire children just have the worst luck.
While I was there, I wandered around the bookstore for awhile (one of my favorite things to do):
* I wandered through the bestseller display, paying greatest attention to two books: the newest John Grisham book and “The Audacity of Hope” by Barack Obama. I like Obama personally, but when I read the quote highlighted on the back of the book, it didn’t motivate me to want to read the whole thing. I mean, if that’s the best quote…
* I wandered through the Christian section of the bookstore. I don’t mean to sound like a snob or anything, but I don’t get much out of the Christian section of popular bookstores. My attention was drawn to the newest Max Lucado book simply because of his Church of Christ connection, but for some reason none of the “popular” books appeal to me (ESPECIALLY the smiley Joel Osteen section)…
* I wandered through the classics section with interest. I’ve never done a lot of reading in the classics, but as I age, I lament that particular fact. I took a long gander at Tolstoy’s “War and Peace,” marveling at the 1400+ pages in the book. I’ve made a New Year’s resolution that I will read “War and Peace” in 2007, just because. After Christmas, I’ll try to pick up a cheap copy somewhere, and after I finish the Lemony Snicket series, I plan to tie into that monstrosity. I’ll tell you all about it as I go…
* I wandered up and down the sports aisle (of course). I noticed “Game of Shadows” and marveled at the fact that a sports book can actually be the cause of prison sentences. But the only book I felt compelled to pick up was some HUGE college football encyclopedia published by ESPN. I read a bit in it, but seriously, one needs to play college football just to be strong enough to hold that book very long. So I moved on…
* Before I left, I spent a little time in the Hurricane Katrina display. I noticed the book, “The Great Deluge,” a copy of which is actually sitting on my nightstand at home. Another of the several books I’m planning to read sometime soon. But the book I picked up was titled, “Love Letters to the South.” (Or something like that.) It was actually a book of copies of real letters from celebrities to the ravaged Gulf Coast, something I found rather neat and personal. Johnny Depp and Jon Bon Jovi and so on and so on took the time to write letters to people like me. Before I knew it, I had flipped through every page in the book, and on the last page I noticed a letter from Jackie Chan. He offered the familiar quote that it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. He closed by wishing the Coast a million candles. From personal experience, that made me smile.
Monday night at a bad mall in a cookie-cutter bookstore. Works for me.
