Let me share with you a text I've really enjoyed.
I've found it at
http://beamansworld.blogspot.com/-------------------------
It was an asylum for the fantasist in us all. A place where reality could be hidden from view whilst dreams were given indulgent release. Historical visions played out like violins, coursing unseen through the air between readers. Knights on horseback, trotted between the isles of shelves, shimmering before silently vanishing. Kings in robes of emblazoned riches, sauntered through the doorways, raising arms to invisible subjects. Philosophers of old, sat on piles of books in corners, muttering, shouting, crying over impossibilities and their own extinguished existence.
Nearby, a pianist played Rachmaninov, beads of sweat dripped down his face as his concentration and exertion produced mere faint wisps of humming ripples. A ballerina in white, arched her legs in a feathered jump, against a dark background, on the face of a book cover. Applause was just discernible between the pauses in traffic outside.
The man was seated behind the counter, his head bowed, at one with his book. Spectacles clung to his nose, distorting the shape of his cheeks through the jaundiced lenses. Mousy coloured hair, short and receding, concealed a private mind, a detached traveller.
People wandered around, slowly eyeing the multitude of titles and pictures. Noses widened, inhaling the fine scent of bound paper, whilst fingers caressed the pages. Monkeys played with the handbags of elderly ladies and blue tits made a nest in the hair of the bird watcher seeking information on golden eagles. A cheetah jumped from the top of the highest shelf and raced out of the front door as a new customer entered.
‘Where do you keep your books on clairvoyance?’, a woman asked the man before fading away into nothingness. Then a customer asked, ‘Where do you keep your books on clairvoyance?’. The man pointed to his left without a word.
I did not find the book I was after and left within fifteen minutes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gareth was born in 1961. From an early age books have been his obsession and on his sixth birthday he had informed his parents he would one day own a bookshop. He now does. Twelve years ago he acquired a decrepit old building, formerly a wool shop, which he developed and refurnished, transforming it into a second hand bookshop. Gareth is a quiet bachelor, preferring the pages of a book to the company of a woman. Whilst customers browse the shelves, he reads and is annoyed when people make small talk.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
