Today is Poetry Friday, and tomorrow is National Bookshop Day and these two things celebrate two of my very favourite things.
This week I had a day in the city, and I took a couple of hours to check out four bookshops. On a personal note I was delighted that three of them had Fly-In Fly-Out Dad, displayed face out (and multiple copies, too).
At Kaleido Books, Perth Train Station
The fourth didn’t, but had two of my other bookbabies, so that was wonderful, too.
At the State Library Bookshop. they had Roses are Blue, too.
Anyway, I came home and I drafted this poem as a celebration of bookstores, and of their lovely staff.
A Note on Shopping
At Boffins Bookstore on William Street, Perth.
In supermarkets
people hurry
looking at lists
racing up and down aisles
or blocking them
to chat
‘Dreadful news.’
‘Had her baby’
‘Did you hear?’
In hardware stores
there are dusty aisles
bored looking
people who are NOT the ones
buying tools
and the staff never look
as happy
as they do
on those advertisements.
In bookshops though
there is
that new book smell
of unearthed treasures
awed hush
of discovery
excited squeals
and gasps
(not just
In the kids’ section)
and staff
who are happy
to come to work.
(Poem copyright Sally Murphy, 2015)
If you are a bookseller, have a wonderful Bookshop Day tomorrow. Thank you for making the world a better place. And if you are a reader, why not take the time to visit your local bookshop.
And today, enjoy Poetry Friday. The roundup this week is at The Opposite of Indifference.
I love your bookshop poem! And though I thoroughly love shops that sell current books (after all, ours are in that category!), I also get excited when I visit a used bookstore. It’s there that I most often find a treasure I didn’t know existed. How wonderful that your books were so well represented in your Bookshop Day tour!
Hi Joyce. Yes, I agree – a used bookstore can hold lots of treasures. Thanks for dropping by.
Yes! The smell & anticipation. I dreamed of owning a bookshop but working in a big one for a while was enough. ?
Owning a bookshop is one of my dreams, too 🙂
Wonderful poem, Sally. I agree! At a bookstore or library, I like to abandon my trusty shopping list and browse. My mother always says that the right book will fall into your lap, sometimes literally. These are the best kinds of discoveries.
Yes, sometimes a book catches your eye and when you pick it up you just know it is meant for you! I love those moments.
I’ll drop by my local indie children’s bookshop and wish them a happy Bookshop Day…and I’ll buy a book to help them along!
Great idea Mary!
Sounds like a great day out! You capture the bookshop culture very well… I think of libraries much the same way.
Oh definitely libraries too! Thanks for visiting.
I didn’t know about bookshop day. What fun! Your poem is a real celebration. So cool to see your books displayed!
I suspect Bookshop day is maybe only in Australia. But it should be international!
Congrats that your book babies were so well-represented in the book stores, Sally! And yay for Bookshop Day!
Thanks Tabatha. Hooray indeed.
We have the joy of many bookshops here in Denver, for new and used books. You’ve captured the feeling well, Sally. Glad you had such a good shopping time, and found your own books too. Indeed, the staff always seems happy!
Thanks Linda. I live in a town with only one bookshop, so love to visit others when I get the chance.
I think, Sally, you just described the very joy of entering a book shop for every book lover. I enter a book shop almost with reverence. A short visit to it simply makes me happy.
So true Myra. Just to walk into a bookshop elevates my mood.