Yesterday, after work, I went to the new used bookstore in town, 2nd And Charles (yeah, that's it's name), located in the old Borders bookstore building. It was my first time in the store since sometime in....2011, I guess.
Firstly, it was quite bittersweet going inside. Everything is set up differently, except where the registers and bathrooms are, and while I slowly walked around getting my bearings, I kept thinking "no, that should be the cafe", "magazines were here", "children's books should be back there not here", "why is music way up here and not where it should be", etc, etc, etc. And I thought back over my three years of working there and was flooded with memories. In fact, I stood where the Info desk HAD been, where I stood many hours in total when i worked there and thought how sad it was for it all to be gone.
After putting the past behind me, I decided to move on into the present and check out the current store. They had a pretty decent selection, and it's well organized within it's various sections, but it took me a while to figure out WHERE the various sections were: sci-fi, politics, gay/lesbian, history, etc. I did end up getting three books.
They have a pretty big music area, which i didn't venture into, although surprisingly, they DID have a vinyl and cassette tape section too! And they are a 'green' store, so they have no paper or plastic bags there. You can bring in your own bags to take your purchases out, or just do like me and carry them out with the receipt. (I think this aspect of the store is gonna piss off a lot of the more conservative residents of Hagerstown. They'll think it's a store filled with tree-hugging, lib-rul, anti-American hippies.)
the most impressive thing about the store was on the back wall is this sign:
Except for the "& Charles" part, it's made ENTIRELY out of books! I was impressed. Never saw anything like that before.
The funniest thing to me was, while I'm just walking around, one of the employees, he's like mid 20's or so, comes up and asks if he can help me find anything. I tell him I'm just looking, but thanks. Still, he stands there for a few seconds before asking, "Did you used to work at Borders?" I told him I did, about ten years ago. He says he thought so, cause his parents drug him in the store nearly every Friday night for a few years, to hear the music. They'd get coffee and listen to it while he read magazines and tried not to be bored. But he thought he recognized me. And I told him I worked virtually EVERY Friday night, so I'm not surprised he saw me. A nd both laughed at the coincidence.
Anyway, I'll probably go back to the store again. I mean, I DO love books, and I DO love cheap books. And it IS local. I'm not sure how long it'll last, but I'll use it while it's here.
POLT
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