The ultimate joy of visiting a bookstore
The serenity of physical bookstores in the era of online shopping.
-Geetika Saini
Over the years, especially since the onset of covid, people have started buying more books online. It is comfortable, convenient, and easier to search for copies online over platforms like Amazon and Flipkart than rummaging through piles in a bookstore. One can look a book up, read the reviews and get it delivered to the comfort of one’s home without having to step outside, with just a click on the phone or computer. This not only saves time but also helps one pinch pennies by comparing the prices on different websites.
The ease with which people can choose to purchase hard copies or digital copies depending upon their usage, without having to worry about the space constraints on their bookshelves is another added benefit of virtual shopping. One can simply store the different formats on Kindle, tablets, or i-pads and browse through multiple books effortlessly.
However, where is the fun in that? The sheer pleasure of being surrounded by thousands of books is conspicuously absent in an online bookstore. The urge to spend a little more time, for life to slow down, if only for a minuscule, to be able to browse through a couple more books before stepping out of the store is non-existent on a virtual platform. The instant connection that forms between a book and its reader when one picks up a random book can only be felt in the thick of bookshelves.
Huddled up next to an assortment of shops, a bookshop is a book lover’s paradise. It is a cozy escape into the literary world, away from the daily tedium of life. Making time and visiting a bookshop can help one to appreciate the little things in life. One can actually feel the warmth the minute one steps inside a bookshop; life galloping at bottleneck speed slows down momentarily to allow the calmness to settle in.
I have to admit that I like ordering books online, especially due to the facility of discounts on the variegated selection, but the very joy of standing amidst the folios, breathing in the new and old paper smells, wondering where to begin is incomparable. I love browsing through the shelves loaded with tomes and volumes; it is an experience. Sometimes I know exactly what I want, but at other times I let the books drive me to them— peeking through shelves, picking up a book, skimming the contents, restacking it, and then coming back to it, deciding upon the ones I would want to take home with me. It is often in this process of drifting to different aisles that I discover a lucky find, a treasure trove that calls to me.
There is indeed something special about physical copies — being able to see books, smell them, touch and feel them is such a wholesome emprise in itself. One can even get one’s hands on special bookmarks and other bookish paraphernalia reminiscent of that particular bookstore. The ease of purchasing books online can never beat the charm of visiting an actual bookstore, it is like dreaming with open eyes and nothing compares with that warm fuzzy feeling.
