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Sections in the Bookstore

 

If on a winters night a traveler

I spend what may seen like an inordinate amount of time in bookshops. I am, even as I type this, sitting in Waterstones, stewing over a novel by Italo Calvino. I’m a bit pressed for time so this won’t be a full review. Instead, I’ll post the practically perfectest quote I’ve ever come across.

Sections in the bookstore

– Books You Haven’t Read

– Books You Needn’t Read

– Books Made for Purposes Other Than Reading

– Books Read Even Before You Open Them Since They Belong to the Category of Books Read Before Being Written

– Books That If You Had More Than One Life You Would Certainly Also Read But Unfortunately Your Days Are Numbered

– Books You Mean to Read But There Are Others You Must Read First

– Books Too Expensive Now and You’ll Wait ‘Til They’re Remaindered

– Books ditto When They Come Out in Paperback

– Books You Can Borrow from Somebody

– Books That Everybody’s Read So It’s As If You Had Read Them, Too

– Books You’ve Been Planning to Read for Ages

– Books You’ve Been Hunting for Years Without Success

– Books Dealing with Something You’re Working on at the Moment

– Books You Want to Own So They’ll Be Handy Just in Case

– Books You Could Put Aside Maybe to Read This Summer

– Books You Need to Go with Other Books on Your Shelves

– Books That Fill You with Sudden, Inexplicable Curiosity, Not Easily Justified

– Books Read Long Ago Which It’s Now Time to Re-read

– Books You’ve Always Pretended to Have Read and Now It’s Time to Sit Down and Really Read Them”

~Italo Calvino,  If On a Winter’s Night A Traveler  (A Book That Filled me with Sudden, Inexplicable Curiosity, Not Easily Justified, but Upon Reading, is Now Entirely Justified..)

One reply on “Sections in the Bookstore”

As I read this list, I knew that I always had these categories in my head but just never realized it. Having someone else verbalize is wonderful.

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