bookstore love

i was driving to the mall the other day and berating myself for signing up again for 4 nights of 12 hours work in a row when i remembered that it is going to be on christmas week. meaning, i will be at the hospital christmas eve and christmas night and will be spending christmas day sleeping in my pajamas because there's really no point of celebrating it because christmas for me is being with family and my family is nowhere near me right now. sad, i know.

anyways, i was at borders this afternoon and that kinda cheered me up. i looove bookstores! in fact i love them so much that i'm thinking of working in one or (if retirement money permits) have my own bookstore when i retire. ha ha, i wish!

i don't know, bookstores have this atmosphere that keeps me at ease. they're diffrent from libraries. libraries are constricting, bookstores aren't. i noticed that everytime something is bothering me or if i am getting restless with life in particular, browsing through the racks and shelves of books calms me and relieves my stress. this was even when i was still in pinas. when i have a misunderstanding with a co-worker or with my mom or whatever was bothering me before, it's always national bookstore to the rescue.

when i was in pinas, a mall trip for me is incomplete without a stop at national bookstore or even a second hand bookstore such as booksale or was it bookshop? when i meet up with my friends or with my sister after work, the meeting place would always be at a national bookstore. i don't know why? we probably thought it was less painful waiting up for someone who is an hour late if you're distracted by the books... he he.

i've always thought that i would stop buying books when my bookshelves wouldn't have room left in them. wrong! my books are now piling up on my bedroom floor and i still went home today with a copy of neil gaiman's anansi boys from borders. go figure. when i came here three years ago, i practiced as much restraint not to bring all my books along with me. of course my sister was the happiest because i had to leave most of them to her. she made up for it though because when i came home a year after, i brought most of her books with filipino authors back with me to the states.

i don't know if i'll ever get tired of reading. i guess i won't. but lately my schedule has been so terrible that reading a chapter or two in one sitting is out of the question. damn i miss my books!