192 Books

Back when I was younger, I was quite the reader. I would spend hours on end reading, book after book. This continued in me until around Eighth Grade, when I finally became so fed up with the garbage that I was being forced to read in school that all of reading left a bad taste in my mouth.

Yes, I remember this trainwreck.

This is a bit of an exaggeration, of course. I still read today, but certainly less than I did when I was younger. People would usually recommend me books and loan me their copies, so between that and the internet with ebooks, I honestly hadn't been in a book store in years. Heck, I think my town's only book store closed down a few years back.

Picture from their official website.

192 Books is tiny! My parent's bedroom is larger than its only room. The shelves within the shelves within the store are filled to the brim with books. One thing that I took note of right away was that I hardly recognized any of the titles. Actually, I had to search for a title I recognized, and the first I found was Moby Dick.

The book store didn't have many costumers in at the same time (probably for the better, given its small size), and I don't believe I ever saw more than five in at a time, but I did see several people enter and leave in the time I spent there. One thing I took note of was how all of the costumers had a nice chat with the lady behind the counter as they checked out. Some even began to talk to her as soon as they walked in. Given their tone, I'm assuming they knew each other and were pretty friendly.

The woman behind the counter actually called out to me and asked if I was looking for anything in particular. I said I wasn't and explained my situation to her. We quickly got into a conversation. I told her I was from Temple, and she said someone in her family (either a niece or daughter, I cannot read my own notes) also attends classes there. She asked me a bit about my thoughts on New York, and I in turn asked her about working in the shop. She said the traffic I saw there was pretty typical and continued throughout the day. She also mentioned that they read to children every Wednesday.

A funny story she told me involved a kid asking if there were only 192 different books at the store (the 192 refers to the street number, not the number of books, in case you were wondering). On my way out, she told me to grab a free bookmark, gesturing to the counter as she walked across the room to help a customer. I saw a few colorful bookmarks on a small shelf, and assumed that's what she was talking about. I walked out the door, before realizing that the bookmark was hand painted. I immediately walked back in and asked who painted it, and thank goodness I did. As it would turn out, the painted bookmarks were not the free bookmarks she was referring to, and actually cost about $75. I profusely apologized for almost stealing one, and proceeded to grab a proper bookmark. Turns out, the expensive colorful ones were hand made by the owners of the store, who also own an art gallery down the street.

This bookmark is significantly less exciting than the one I thought I was getting.