Friday Fictioneers–Under Cover

Right after family and friends, the short list of things I love most in day-to-day life includes books. The love of books grabbed me as a little girl and I’ve been enmeshed in its web ever since. I unashamedly admit I’m a bibliophile and although I love the ease of my Kindle, I’ll never get rid of my books. Library levies are the only tax increases for which I’ll vote. I love the smell of a new book and browsing in a used bookstore is a joy that never diminishes.

So to honor the love I have for books, my inner muse rolled out a poem in the tradition of the poems of Rudyard Kipling, Dr. Seuss, Ogden Nash, and others (although I’m not comparing my humble offering to any of theirs), poems you might find in the old Childcraft books: the rhyming poem that rolls along, pulls you in, and flows trippingly from the tongue if read aloud (please try it). I hope I’ve achieved a little of that magic this week and perhaps you and your inner child, will enjoy this paean to books.

I’ve even manged to make it come in at exactly 100 words.

Copyright Claire Fuller

….

Under Cover

“Don’t judge a book by its cover”
May or may not be true
But you’ll never discover the story
‘Til you read it through and through.

A book will deliver you places
You can’t ordinarily go
More reliably than the Post Office can
Through the rain and sleet and snow.

It can make you think or make you cry
Turn your world upside down
It holds the power to mesmerize
Without making the slightest sound.

You’ll discover best friends and enemies
The truth and make-believe
And the most wonderful book of all of them
Is one you hate to leave.

…………………………………….

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Edging closer to perfection, one bookstore at a time

Naperville, Illinois has edged one step closer to being the perfect place to live…it now has a Half Price Books store!!

I discovered it yesterday while zooming down I-59, a main-drag highway that sometimes masquerades as a parking lot, headed for veggie heaven at Caputo’s Fresh Market, where I sometimes wish I had a smart phone just to look up what some of those vegetables are and what they’re used for. I glanced to the left, then did the classic double-take. There it was. A Half Price Books sign. A joyous smile plastered itself to my face and on the way back, even though I didn’t have time to look, I made a quick stop, just for the joy of walking through the door, taking a page of coupons from a welcoming book-ista and skimming through the cookbook section. Another visit is on my list for this week.

It’s not that Naperville doesn’t have a bookstore; they have a wonderful, independent one, Anderson’s Bookshop, http://www.andersonsbookshop.com/, a beautiful bookstore offering all sorts of book-related activities and bringing an astounding number of authors to town. There’s also Frugal Muse, http://www.frugalmuse.com/, in Darien as well as two places in Madison, Wisconsin, although it’s a bit of a drive. Oh, yes, there’s also a two-story Barnes and Noble downtown, although the Borders is now gone. So there are bookstores; bookstores I patronize, even though I’m trying not to buy so many books. But I’m a bibliophile and despite Kindle’s storage and portability advantages, I still love books and buy them at least occasionally.

Naperville also has a vibrant downtown, a beautiful river walk, an excellent library system, name-brand stores in old, lovely buildings downtown, every store you can think of along I-59, a publishing company, Sourcebooks, Inc., http://www.sourcebooks.com/, (who wonderfully reprinted Georgette Heyers books–bless them!), Binny’s for all the beer/wine/alcohol you’d like at discount prices, some wonderful thrift stores and, as they say, a whole lot more. And now it has a Half Price Books. Just when you think life can’t get any better!

Now what about an artisan bakery? And maybe a vegan/vegetarian restaurant? And my last request (at least for now)….a non-frou-frou teashop. Hats off to TeaLula in Park Ridge,http://www.tealula.com/, for perfecting that concept! Oh, that you were here, too!!