Thursday I had the day entirely to myself, as my family headed out to the opening of my uncle’s building in Boston. I headed out around 12:30 and made my way to one of the sweetest bookstores ever. Strand Bookstore claims to have 18 miles of books. You can purchase books by the yard, the foot, leather-bound books, rare books, first editions, you name it, they’ve got it.

I love bookstores. I could have spent all day there, except for the fact that, unlike Barnes & Noble or Portland’s Powell’s Books, Strand has fewer places to sit and devour books other than the floor. Even though I was there on a Thursday afternoon, the place was packed. Three floors of books, books, books, some brand new and some traded in. I wandered through and put 6 or 7 books in my shopping bag when I realized that was an unrealistic number to schlep back home. So, I opted for Pride & Prejudice, which I have never read and would like to, if only so I can read the zombie version. $6 new. I also bought A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah. After almost 2 hours of browsing and wishing I had limitless money and space to buy and transport everything I saw, I headed out, passed through Union Square Park and then sat in Madison Square Park briefly to read. Then it started to rain.

While we’re on the subject of reading, I have to say: I have started neither of the books I bought, due to the addiction I have acquired to the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. My original plan had been to go to the Strand, grab one of the Percy Jackson books (I believe I was on book 2, The Sea of Monsters), sit and read until I finished it. However, due to lack of totally nonobtrusive reading space, I decided against it. I want to do a little free publicity for that series, though. It is awesome. Seriously. I wish I had written it. Although they’re geared for middle schoolers, mostly, the books are well written and super fun if you have any interest whatsoever in Greek/Roman mythology. A few of my students this semester knew about some obscure mythological monsters thanks to this series, so I really owe a thank you to the series’ author, Rick Riordan, for writing such a brilliant series. I just wish I had had the idea first. 🙂