literary love

Over Christmas, while visiting the husband's family...the husband and I out running errands, we ducked into Lemuria Bookstore. Now, I realize some of my anonymity will be revealed with this post as the locale will be given but this place is just too good not to mention. We have loved this bookstore for years...the husband longer than I as he grew up with it. Let me just say, there are very few bookstores like this anymore. Yes, across the freeway and frontage road is Books-A-Million, but this place is different. It's a literary lounge so to speak...and in a good way. Not filled with rifling teenagers and coffee stained previewed magazines and books. No, this is a little place with every square inch furiously jammed with books overflowing from every shelf...many signed...many rare...many first editions. In fact, you can join their "First Editions Club". A club of exclusivity I'm sure, given the price of many first editions...a club of beauty with their little jagged edged...fresh torn pages. The husband and I perused the bounty of books...I, overwhelmed with the possibilities of what I might find...overwhelmed with seeing so many that I would love to have. The husband set on getting a local, well known, renowned author's book which became a movie years ago that we have seen about a thousand times but he said, "I bet the book will be better" and somehow I knew it would. What would I get? We were in a hurry, as we always are, and I knew my browsing time was tick-tick-ticking as I frantically thumbed the shelves, eyes shifting trying to take it all in...not miss a thing. I finally settled on a little book of short stories by Truman Capote entitled "A Christmas Memory". Surprisingly, it was a first edition and lucky for the husband not one that would break the bank. Sadly it was unsigned as Capote passed away in '84 but it would be a good one...and a perfect fit to the season. I've already finished it and I'm now in that sad state that occurs when you've just left your best friend and don't know when you'll see them again. However, on my way out of Lemuria another book caught my eye and I'm going to start it tonight...a book about famous authors that quit their day jobs to become writers. We had a great time in that cozy little bookstore thick with thought...I could have stayed there all day. And so, sometimes I play this little game in my head...where would I love to go to escape...where no one would find me...where I could just be swallowed up for a while...forget about the trials of life ?...and, well...you might just find me at Lemuria.

image credit: Lemuria Bookstore