Saturday, April 1, 2006

New books

I've gotten back into reading since my double cataract surgery last year. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to read as much because of the implants, even though they have eliminated my previously lifelong need for glasses and contacts for just about everything. I've found that reading glasses, while a bit of an annoyance, have made a huge difference, and I can not only read stuff I need to read for work, I don't have to rely on large-print books for pleasure reading.

I stumbled onto Jennifer Chiaverini's "Elm Creek Quilters" series a few weeks ago, and I'm hooked. I love the stories about each of the individual quilters, and I've fallen in love with the house itself. Escapist? Yes, but no more so than the incessant reruns of "Everybody [Hates] Raymond" I was watching before. I'm so thankful that my condo is less than a mile away from the library! It would be even nicer if they allowed dogs, because then I could take my puppy boy on treks to the library and back (which would be good for both of us).

Borders bookstore in Ann Arbor allows dogs. Really. They took over the former Jacobson's store space and have a two-level store that is phenomenal in its breadth and depth. Music, gift items, catalogs and the now-requisite coffee bar take up some of the space, but they still have the best book selection I've ever seen, and they've been around forever. But they allow people to bring their dogs into the store, which is awesome. The dogs I saw in the store were not running wild or barking and slobbering over anyone or anything they passed; for the most part, they just sat on the floor next to their humans and waited. It was very cool.

If I ever had the money to leave the practice of law, I would open a bookstore just like that (only smaller).

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