"But I'm Not Dead Yet..."

Yesterday afternoon, I waltzed excitedly through the glass doors.

I hadn’t visited the Athens Book Center, located at 74 East State St., in nearly five months, and frankly, I’d missed it.

Upon arriving, I glanced around. To my right, a café-type area with tiny tables and chairs stood awaiting an intelligent tush to rest on it. To my left, two regulars catch up while relaxing on two of the three plush, worn couches.  The couches looked so inviting, but I admit, I didn’t have time to sit down.

After walking through the sitting areas, I was taken aback by the vast number of books exploding from the shelves and emerging from stacks on the floor. 

I walked through hall aligned with books and straight to the rear of the shop, to my favorite section of the store.  In this back room rest the foreign language novels, which I love to pretend I can read. OK, so I can read French, but that’s not the point.  Across the room are other novelties and books that need to be handled with care, which are kept in glass shelves.

The entire time I was in the store, I was surrounded by the smell of ink printed on paper, and the scent of binding mixed with a tinge of brewed coffee.

Something I never noticed until writing this: mega-bookstores like Barnes & Noble or even the college bookstores on campus don’t have the “book” smell.  This is disheartening. But thankfully, we have at least one bookstore in Athens that actually smells like books.

Some say used bookstores are a “dying breed.” In fact, Athens Book Center employee Justin Kendrick, a fifth-year student studying creative writing, used this term when talking about the bookstore industry.  But one reason he decided to work at the store is because it’s “the only real bookstore in town.”

He described the atmosphere as “literate,” or one in which customers converse about books and their favorite authors.

“You meet people who care about writing,” Kendrick said.

Although, due to time constraints, I don’t read nearly as much as I want, I get a certain unexplainable thrill when picking up a book, no matter if it’s new or used.  And I don’t know if any of you have had this experience, but I get excited when I visit a unique bookstore such as the Athens Book Center.