A few weeks ago, I went to a used bookstore that was three stories of books from floor to ceiling. I walked in, and my breath was immediately taken away. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a complete and utter book nerd, and walking into that store made me feel calm and at peace and free and like I had just entered my personal heaven on Earth. I wandered around that store for hours, trying to limit myself to only three books, which turned out to be an impossible task.
Being in there made me feel a way that I can't quite put into words and that I've only ever felt while in other bookstores. There is something so powerful about being surrounded by centuries of knowledge, philosophy, and art. There is something so moving and almost spiritual about that.
I feel this way when I'm in any bookstore, but being in one that sells used books only amplifies that feeling. I used to think that it was just because I felt better about buying books that weren't freshly printed. I thought it felt so much better because I knew that it was more sustainable and that trees weren't being cut down to satisfy my obsession with books.
Once I started actually reading one of the books I bought, however, I realized the real reason why I love used bookstores.
As I was flipping through the pages of the copy of As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner, two family photos dropped into my lap from within the pages. They looked old, probably taken in the 90s, and were of an entire family sitting around a dinner table with smiles on their faces. As I looked at their faces, I started tearing up because suddenly, somehow, I felt connected to these people I have never met and will never meet.
One of the people in these photos had read this book. They had read the same words I am reading. They had felt the same way I am feeling as I grow attached to the characters and the story. They had touched the same pages and flipped through them the same way I am. One of these people had held this same book so close to them that they had put family photos in it to preserve them.
I looked at the photos, and I felt like I was a part of them. Like I am somehow part of their story now because these pictures are sitting on my bedside table and I am loving a book one of them loved as well. It reminded me of a quote from Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower:
"And all the books you've read have been read by other people. And all the songs you've loved have been heard by other people. And that girl that's pretty to you is pretty to other people. and that if you looked at these facts when you were happy, you would feel great because you are describing 'unity'."
I think that's the nameless feeling I get when I'm in used bookstores- unity.
In a used bookstore, you're not just buying a book and getting the author's words and thoughts. You're surrounded by hundreds, maybe even thousands, of people's thoughts. You're experiencing with them something they loved that they are now giving to you to love. You're seeing the folds in the corners of the pages that marked their stopping point before going to sleep or school or on an adventure. You're seeing the tears in the paper that must've made them squeak when they did it by accident and the water stains from when they got caught in the rain. You're reading their annotations and understanding the book as they understood it. You're finding their highlighted and underlined quotes and wondering what made that line so important to them that they wanted attention to be drawn to it. What were they thinking? What were they feeling? Does this line still mean something to them all these years later? Does it mean something to you? Does it mean the same thing?
So that's why I love used bookstores. There's a sense of unity and understanding that doesn't exist almost anywhere else. There's a feeling of being connected to someone else from a different time and place and background. There are so many things that make us different from one another, but the words on these pages that we are all reading and all loving are the same.