The dark thick clouds covered the sky above and the rain crashed into the ground. It was supposed to be a nice Sunday according to the papers if I recall correctly, but it sure is going to be a great day.
Mr. Steorra’s Bookstore stood lonely by the street. The lights from the window reflected to the wet pavement and it looks like it has another door to the bookstore.
Maris normally had her shift on weekend mornings at Mr. Steorra’s Bookstore. But that day, she had to take over the afternoon shift.
Mr. Steorra’s Bookstore is practically an old bookstore and some say that the bookstore was there before the town had existed. I do remember that this place used to be one of the lively places in town. But now that people bought their books at other new bookstores, Amazon and read eBooks, it had lost its energy it once had, though it still has its charm. Let me tell you dear reader, paper books are far better than those digital ones, I promise. Anyways, the store has all varieties of genre and languages of books, new and old. You won’t have any idea how much books it contains.
Meanwhile, Maris was sitting behind the counter in the center of the store listening to the falling raindrops as she kept her head down reading. No customer had entered the door today; well no one would in this kind of rain. For Maris, working at the bookstore was like heaven to her. She’s always loved books since she was small. When she had the chance, she would be buried in her books. Even if her friends around her read in their tablets, she couldn’t resist the texture and the smell of paper books.
While she was reading, she slowly raised her head up by the sound coming from one of the bookshelves. She thought she heard a giggle, and the voice seemed lik...
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... stars. They just stood there for a few moments until Lucas broke the silence. “How is it that he knew I was coming? And am I suppose to help you with this place?” “Well you don’t have to you know, beca-” “No way! There’s no place like this and it would be amazing if I’d be able to come here to work!”
Just as he said that, the room seemed to lighten up and when Maris looked around, the store had looked back to normal as if nothing had happened.
After few weeks, Lucas started to help Maris at the store. After they once closed the store for the day, once a week they would open up the books to enjoy the moment the enchanted books created. Look at them, they seem perfect for each other don’t you think? Well now if you’ll excuse me dear reader, I need to go and see my granddaughter! I haven’t seen her for quite a long time. And do please visit my store someday…
“'Forget books,”'said Rosewater, throwing that particular book under his bed. 'The hell with 'em.' 'That sounded like an interesting one,' said Valencia.”
She drew aside the curtain and leaned her wrist on one of the crosspieces between panes, but, feeling grit, she removed it, rubbed it clean with her other hand, and stood by more erectly. Outside, the filthy slush was visibly turning to ice. Mary Jane let go the curtain and wandered back to the blue chair, passing two heavily stocked bookcases without glancing at any of the titles. (Salinger Nine 22)
...’ (21). These rhetoric questions force readers to stand on her side and to ponder in her direction. She compares the contents of the twentieth-century chapters in current books to ‘a modern-art museum’ (22), which ironically and humorously criticizes the fancy design of the current books. She also directly quotes the original texts to show the changes of current books such as a paragraph from Sellers’ book ‘As It Happened’.
	"It mattered that education was changing me. It never ceased to matter. My brother and sisters would giggle at our mother’s mispronounced words. They’d correct her gently. My mother laughed girlishly one night, trying not to pronounce sheep as ship. From a distance I listened sullenly. From that distance, pretending not to notice on another occasion, I saw my father looking at the title pages of my library books. That was the scene on my mind when I walked home with a fourth-grade companion and heard him say that his parents read to him every night. (A strange sounding book-Winnie the Pooh.) Immediately, I wanted to know, what is it like?" My companion, however, thought I wanted to know about the plot of the book. Another day, my mother surprised me by asking for a "nice" book to read. "Something not too hard you think I might like." Carefully I chose one, Willa Cather’s My ‘Antonia. But when, several weeks later, I happened to see it next to her bed unread except for the first few pages, I was furious and suddenly wanted to cry. I grabbed up the book and took it back to my room and placed it in its place, alphabetically on my shelf." (p.626-627)
In a world dominated by technology, reading novels has become dull. Instead of immersing into books, we choose to listen to Justin Bieber’s new songs and to scroll through Instagram posts. We have come to completely neglect the simple pleasures of flipping through pages and getting to finally finish a story. Sherman Alexie and Stephan King’s essays attempt to revive this interest in books that has long been lost. They remind us of the important role that reading plays in our daily lives. “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me,” for instance, demonstrates how being literate saved the narrator from the oppressive nature of society. The author explains that even though he was capable of reading complex books at an astonishingly young
Lizzie was observed in the library making noise and asked one of the staff members if they have toys in the library and stated, “I am bored its nothing here to do, but look at books.”
Utilizing effective diction is key as Welty to put together the mosaic of memories that illustrates the intense presence of reading in her life. Her use of diction pulls the reader into the scenes, it makes them real. When she describe the library the wording allows to hear “the steady seething of the electric fan”, the harsh tone of the librarian’s “normal commanding
In the library she would alternate what types of books they would read. Whenever she would read to him she would read in a way that made you cling to every word the author wrote. In times like these, Rodriguez would become engaged in these books. “I sat there and sensed for the very first time some possibility of fellowship between reader and writer, a communication, never intimate like that I heard spoken words at home convey, but nonetheless personal.” (Rodriguez 228). During this part of Rodriguez’s life, his view towards books changed.
Ever since I was a child, I've never liked reading. Every time I was told to read, I would just sleep or do something else instead. In "A Love Affair with Books" by Bernadete Piassa tells a story about her passion for reading books. Piassa demonstrates how reading books has influenced her life. Reading her story has given me a different perspective on books. It has showed me that not only are they words written on paper, they are also feelings and expressions.
The local Barnes and Noble on Veterans Boulevard houses a host of fascinating characters, creating a museum of people for the watchful reader who, seated in a plush chair in the corner of the store, can occasionally look up from his book and shoot curious glances at the people surrounding him. As customers, browsers, readers, and studiers walk through the double doors of the book lover’s haven, the seated observer can watch each individual move towards his task, whether it is simply browsing the countless shelves of the store for an interesting find or selecting an assortment of magazines with which to waste time in the company of his Starbucks coffee. Although one may not initially notice the different groups of people that frequent Barnes and Noble, when he studies the people walking in and out of the store, he will notice three distinct groups. While some customers are honestly and directly searching for a specific item in the bookstore, the coffee-drinking readers, the impish denizens of the children’s section, and the aimless shelf browsers compose the three separate clusters of people that cause Barnes and Noble to be a museum of sorts, forming an interesting view for a curious spectator.
Walker, Alice. “Everyday Use.” Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing, Compact. Ed. Laurie G. Kirszner., and Stephen R. Mandell
The setting is in the newly opened library funded by Mr. Lemoncello. This is important, because if it was any other library, they wouldn’t have to escape from it, and if it was old, they also wo didn’t have to escape from
Walker, Alice. “Everyday Use.” Robert DiYanni, ed. Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 6th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2007.
The upper shelf contains my most varied readings that span from books of love letters, tales of war, and chronicles of bildungsroman narratives. Rows upon rows of books are hidden behind the visible layer, with each story containing a cherished memory. These novels were recommended by inspiring teachers, received from knowledgeable relatives, or discovered on engaging odysseys to the bookstore.