On Bookstores

I don’t have many traditions in my rather spontaneous life but it’s Sunday, and that means a weekly visit to Barnes and Noble. If there are two places that I can safely say I spend most of my time, it is coffeeshops and bookstores. Both are a refuge for introverts who desire nothing more than to spend their day with a good author and a good cup of coffee. I often imagine Heaven to be something like a big Barnes and Noble, without the annoying security beepers at the front.

Although I love Barnes and Noble, I realize my bookstore experience is limited by my Midwestern suburban existence. Really cool bookstores just don’t exist here.  It’s either Barnes, Borders, or Books-A-Million-all very corporate, all very much the same, all very boring. But what’s a suburban bibliophile to do? I guess I just deal with it. After all, a book is a book no matter where its sold. And thankfully, a book’s power is to take us to worlds not so corporate, not so suburban, and not so boring.

But every now and then, I actually get to go to those places. When I was in London, I stumbled across a very cool bookstore and spent a good deal of time just soaking up the aura of the place. Sure, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey were great, but that little bookstore has stayed with me the most. It’s the same in other cities. Give me a tour book with every bookstore in town and I’ll be a happy man.

So if you’re like me and dream of glorious bookstores, check out some of the Most Interesting Bookstores in the World. Below are some other great bookstore links.

The World’ s 10 Best Bookshops

Bookstore Hall of Fame

10 Best Independent Bookstores in North America

What are your favorite bookstores?

The Unique Gospel

I’m in the middle of Martin Goodman’s Rome and Jerusalem. Detailed and thorough, this book explores the tensions and struggles between the Roman and Jewish world that led up to the destruction of Jeruslalem in 70 AD. I’ve personally found it to be an insightful account of the world out of which Christianity emerged.

Here’s a quote exploring the uniqueness of the Gospel genre in the Roman and Jewish world:

“Biographical narratives like the Gospels, which present insights into the psychological dramas and complex motivations of ordinary people set against the background of wider political events, were not standard among Jews any more than among Greeks or Romans; the popularity of the genre among early Christians as a way of spreading the word about Jesus’ life and teaching may be ascribed in part precisely to the novelty of this sort of writing.” (179-180)

A Blog About Books

This is a blog about books. It’s really that simple.  Here are a couple things you’ll find at bookpolis:

• A weekly book review done by yours truly.
• Real-time thoughts, opinions, and reactions to books I’m reading.
• Interesting news, facts, and trivia concerning all things bookish.
• Quotes of the day to satisfy your daily quotation quota.