9.21.2010

That bookstores are such places is always hoped for...

Reading now: The Secret of Lost Things by Sheridan Hay

When I was looking for new mysteries/dark fiction to read for the R.I.P. Challenge I stumbled across The Secret of Lost Things on a Flashlight Worthy List Literary Thrillers for the Book Lover. The synopsis explains the book is "a literary adventure that captures the excitement of discovering a long-lost manuscript by a towering American writer and an evocative portrait of life in a bookstore very reminiscent of the world-famous Strand." In the novel, the bookstore meant to represent The Strand is named "The Arcade".


So, The Stand is my all-time favorite bookstore and I knew had to immediately buy this book; fifty pages in and it is living up to it's potential. Here is a beautiful passage that uniquely captures the experience and abidance of The Strand.
Understand, The Arcade itself is a city; itself, an island. That bookstores are such places is always hoped for but The Arcade is like the original wish behind such hopes. The Arcade was population, mass, the accomplishment of a city. Books were stacked like teeming New Yorkers, invisible inside their buildings, but sensed as bees in a hive. The hum of life issuing from the crowds that filled the city I had begun to experience, but in The Arcade that buzzing life was made calculable in things. Chaps always told mother and me books were minds on the shelf. Here is seemed true, books didn't seem inanimate, a kind of life rose from the piles heaped on tables before me.

6 comments:

  1. I love the Strand! That's definitely a store I can't go in with a plan. I need to see where the shelves take me. I will have to check out this book. Thanks!

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  2. I LOVE the sound of that bookstore!! I think it's the exact opposite of the bookstore I posted about last week . . .

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  3. What a delicious sounding bookstore! Funny, I actually clicked over to this post from my blogger dashboard because of that wonderful photo you included in the post. = )

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  4. The Strand is where my daughter takes me whenever I visit her. She knows I will buy her any book she wants. Luckily, she never overdoes it, in fact I always end up buying more than her!!

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  5. That quote was just beautiful. I've never been to The Strand, but your post made me anxious to visit.

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  6. I really loved this book and I wish a place like the Arcade existed. It doesn't in my city, but I'll keep looking.;) I'm glad you chose that passage, it's so beautiful.

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