Everyone has a happy place, somewhere we go to physically or emotionally when we need a moment for ourselves. There’s just something about the place that brings us to a different state. Flashbacks to a happier time, or the potential that lies within it. Mine are bookshops. No one shop in particular, but all of them.
This is fairly true to the stereotype of a literature student. For me now, it’s that there are so many new things to discover in a bookshop. New favourite authors, or books, or genres. Each one that I pick up could be the one that changes my life. The thing that I love most about literature is the idea that we all have a novel in us. Every book is a different way of viewing the world, as experienced by the author. Under the roof of a bookshop are thousands of these viewfinders into another world, another version of our world, another life that we can live. There’s a quote from Roald Dahl’s Matilda, one of my absolute favourite books; “All the reading she had done had given her a view of life they had never seen.” In a few words, this is exactly how I feel about reading, and how strong my belief is that everyone reads. That’s what a bookshop represents to me.
They became my happy place when I was much younger though. When I was a kid, whenever we would go on holiday, my parents would take me to our local bookshop and let me pick out a few to take away with me. There was nothing happier to me than those times. Carefully running my fingers over the spines of each book, reading over the blurbs. It felt like hours. By the end of it, I’d always have an armful of books, and I’d inevitably be made to put a few of them back. But they were always there for me to come back to.
Whenever I need a moment for myself now, I head to a bookshop. The paper-and-glue smell that everyone who still reads books on paper makes me feel like a child again. Even if I don’t intend to buy anything, there’s something about the process of looking around a bookshop that is inherently calming.
I’ve shown you mine, now tell me yours. Where’s your happy place? And what makes it’s so special to you? Please, share yours in the comments, I’d really love to hear from you.
Hooks, Books, and Funny Looks 