I found myself with an hour or so to kill yesterday. No kids in tow, no dogs to entertain, no tax returns to file…what’s a girl to do?

Visit the bookstore, of course.

It’s been a while since I wandered around in here. We popped in this June to find T-man’s second summer reading book. Boy, did I blow that one. Instead of letting him start his first book while I researched young adult novels set in the civil war era I rushed it, helping T-man choose a book from the small selection an employee pulled. The book was hard (as in painful reading for a 14-year-old non-history buff) and written from Robert E. Lee’s point of view.

Geez, Laura, because the kid doesn’t get enough history from a white perspective. I’m granting myself grace while promising to do better.

At any rate, a few other thoughts struck me as I wander the shelves.

There are 10 sections filled with books about Christianity (plus another two with bibles) but only one on Eastern Religions.

I think we can all agree there’s more scholarly work on non-Christian faith than what’s in that tiny section. So I’m left wondering what sort of supply and demand issue this represents. That we live in the Bible Belt and they stock what’s profitable? That there’s a lack of curiosity about what the rest of the world believes? Or that people know this isn’t the place to come for non-Christian reading material?

There’s a book out there called Raising Trump written by – you guessed it – Ivana Trump.

I cannot fathom what would drive me to read this book. No, wait, I can fathom. Nothing. Nothing would drive me to read this book.

They’ve also got Omarosa’s book Unhinged. Also Fire and Fury and Let Trump Be Trump.

No, I didn’t pick these up and skim them. I need rock solid blood pressure levels, thanks.

About 1/10 of the store’s footprint is filled with…STUFF.

When did bookstores start carrying all this crap? Okay, maybe I can let the magazines slide, those are kinda reading material. But puzzles and board games? Photo frames? There’s gift bags and specialty pens, stationary and throws and freaking hand lotion. Who the hell is shopping in here??

The children’s section is WAY kid friendly.

I wish there’d been a bookstore like this when I was a kid. There’s a giant train table and awesome little beanbag chairs for lounging. They’ve got huge tree cutouts and characters all over the walls. Dr. Seuss, Curious George, Pooh and Piglet – you’d have to have a heart of stone to keep from grinning at those with your kid. That’s right, munchkins, reading is FUN.

It’s a sea of books drawing me in, over and over again.

Books I’ve already read but want to revisit. Books they declare “everyone should read” – and I believe them. Poetry and biographies and fiction and more, until there aren’t enough hours in the day for all the books I want to pour into my head.