Browsing Borders

Last night I took a trip to the nearby Borders with my husband and one of my sons, enjoying what amounts to an upgraded library visit for me. Not to take anything away from our local libraries, who get much more of my patronage; and quite honestly, my money, as I pay fairly routine library fines. Worth every penny.

It's just that I get a pumpkin spice latte at Borders. After a bit of relaxing family chit-chat, we disperse to our various aisles and settle in to the time-honored tradition of browsing and scanning. Sometimes I even do the unheard of and read the end of a book that piques my interest, but I never intend on buying. I love the liberty of the entitlement to look through things, taking care to leave it well-intact for its future purchaser, with the complete lack of obligation to leave with anything. It feels healthy. There is a time and a place for laying down your money, but it need not be each and every time you enter a business establishment.

I must get a little book that fits into my purse one of these days. Fishing through my bag, I dispersed one receipt to my husband and found one for myself. We use these for jotting down things. His were notes on what he read and didn't want to forget, mine were of books I might buy at a later date. Among these:

When Forgiveness Doesn't Make Sense - a subject I have met and walked through, yet still wrestle with helping others to grasp

Captivating - to better understand our mystery

More Beautiful You - looks like a great girl's devotional

9 Things You Simply Must Do- for our good and the good of others

Forgotten God - Have you read Crazy Love?

No Small Snakes - Great hook of a title, and up my alley

Praise Habit - Funny and identifiable

The Sacredness of Questioning Everything - He's big enough, and this looked very smart

Spiritual Secrets to Weight Loss - I didn't agree with all of this (big surprise), but it seemed like a sincere cheerleading support of a book

As I read and perused, my head nodded or I laughed out loud. I hear that the field of journalism and its kind is dwindling. I hope that is not so. There is so much joy and satisfaction within the pages of a book. And as much as I enjoy the advantages of the screen for various things, it is an entirely different sphere of relating and operating. It does not replace a book.

Uncharacteristically, I actually left borders with a book in a bag. I decided I couldn't leave without The Organic God by Margaret Feinberg. I truly hope it is a book that will nourish and grow me, and that I can pass on to another. There is such a grace and weight of particular importance when a book is given to you, especially if it was read first, don't you think? This particular book seems made for that.