The Bars of Literature

by

Lauren Roberts

 
Dear Abby, the question invariably begins, where can I meet a decent man/woman? That question has popped up repeatedly over the years, and the answer from both women has inevitably been through your church, volunteer work, friends. It’s a decent answer, I suppose, but limiting. For me and for you—since you are reading this—an even better answer would include “In the bookstore.”

Not that I am suggesting that you (especially if you are male) cruise the aisles with an eye to the flesh instead of the books, but there is something about making contact with someone in a bookstore that lends a high brow feel to the usual who-are-you-and-what-do-you-do encounter.

This happened to me a few days ago when I stopped by our local independent store to find a gift for my mother. (Happy birthday, Mom!) I slowly scanned the windows before entering the store, and was thrilled to see a gorgeous coffee table book, Gardens in Time (HNA Books; $60) sitting at my eye-level. My mother loves anything to do with gardens and gardening so my senses were tingling—the perfect gift had fallen into my arms. I walked in and asked to see it. The book is large and because of the high quality of the paper, extremely heavy. I took it over to a table, placed it on top of the other books and began to leaf carefully through its pages.

The gardens were stunning, the photography exceptional. I’m not sure, but there must have been a dazzling smile on my face as I pictured my mom’s delight in this gift. So I should not have been too surprised when a kindly male voice  from across the table interrupted my reverie. “Pardon me,” he said, “I don’t mean to intrude, but is that book as good as it looks?”

It took a moment for me to “come to,” but I responded, “It’s great! My mother is going to love this!” He smiled. So did I. And then we spent several minutes talking. His name is Bruce. He enjoys gardening as well as travel and history, and he is a big reader. We talked about our reading preferences and our mutual appreciation for the eclectic nature of this bookstore. He seems like a nice guy, and it was fun flirting with him over the New Arrivals table accompanied by a background sound of soft classical music.

Part of the joy of this encounter was its unexpectedness. Another part is the natural intertwining that comes with sharing a mutual passion—in this case, of books and reading. And perhaps the best part was our meeting in a place where each of us was comfortable, and neither one of us looking for anything more than a book. Somehow a connection was made. And though I was on my way to a professional writers’ group luncheon and could not stay, we have agreed to meet next weekend at the bookstore and go to lunch from there.

Bookstores—the new bars for singles.  


Almost since her childhood days of Mother Goose, Lauren has been giving her opinion on books to anyone who will listen. That “talent” eventually took her out of magazine writing and into book reviewing in 2000 for an online review site where she cut her teeth (as well as a few authors). Stints as book editor for her local newspaper and contributing editor to Booklist and Bookmarks magazines have reinforced her belief that she has interesting things to say about books. Lauren shares her home with several significant others including three cats, 750 bookmarks and nearly 1,000 books that, whether previously read or not, constitute her to-be-read stack. She can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it