Wandering the Bookstore Aisles a Thing of the Past

Gone are the aisles of glossy hard covers, colorful kids' books and thumbed-through magazines. With the recent and our local Barnes and Noble, it is becoming harder and harder now to find a place to buy or browse books.

Borders, in particular, was a favorite among my family. My boys loved looking through the children’s section, often spending more time pressing the buttons on those annoying books that have sounds than actually opening a book.

Sometimes we’d actually buy a book or two, though, or even grab a coffee from the café. For a family of five, it was a cheap outing and easy escape on a weekend night when we just needed a little time to wander the aisles of our favorite sections. 

I must admit that I’ve always been a bookstore junkie, and I get a certain high from getting lost in the cramped corners of a whimsical independent store, or from perusing the wide variety of items I can find at a big-box chain. I have worked at bookstores since I was a teenager, and sadly all of those stores are now defunct. 

I haven’t ventured yet into the world of eBooks, which I’m sure I’ll have to once I get tired of clicking through the pages of Amazon just to find a good read. I don’t really need to be buying books anyway. They are expensive, and are only read once, judging by the dusty collection I proudly display on my overflowing bookshelf.

When it comes to children’s books, though, I do have a soft spot. There are so many kids’ books today that are beautifully written and illustrated, ethnically diverse and downright funny.

My boys have had a well-stocked library in their room since birth, and I believe it is why they love books just as much as I do. Although I am a teacher, I did not sit down with my oldest son and teach him how to read when it was time.

By providing a tangible collection of books that he or I could read at any time, my son developed into a reader naturally. In my house, reading is an everyday occurrence like eating and sleeping.

I still have some of the cloth books that I read to him when he was an infant, and the chewed-up board books from when he was a toddler. Now he’s got all kinds of picture books and is starting to show an interest in easy chapter books, which will be our next purchase.

I can’t imagine a baby showing much interest in a Kindle or Nook. My youngest boy, who is 1, curls up with his nightly book in his crib, sleepily flipping through the chunky pages and babbling a little story that only he can understand.

So I will continue to indulge my boys in real books for as long as I can. Although the closest Barnes and Noble is now in Dublin, I can still buy children’s books at Half Price Books in Fremont. 

I’ve also started looking more closely at those Scholastic book orders my school-aged son gets, because they are high-interest and don’t charge sales tax. and Target have small children’s book sections, but the books make good gifts for birthday parties, since you can get gift receipts. 

I grew up in a time, though, when store-bought books were hard to come by, and I still managed to spend many a dreamy summer day lost in the pages of a children’s book. I got my books from the cheapest place around that will never go out of business, the .