Borders & the Abyss

My local Borders is closing.

 

It is where I go for solace, where I go to be alone.  

I buy a cup of coffee, I find a quiet corner & I read.  Sometimes I read a book I brought with me, sometimes I buy a book, sometimes I interview a book.

 

Sometimes I take my lap top & ear phones & write.  

It was my refuge from madness & the abyss.

I used to take the boys to the children’s programs & readings at Borders at the Fountains. 

 

The last time I was there, I wandered to the children’s section & saw kids lounging on the steps, reading & looking at picture books.  I saw children gathered around, listening to a story being read by a character from a popular series.

So I will have to explore my options – what did I do before there was a local Borders?

I hid out in a room or sat at a hammock between the trees Jack & Jean planted.  I went to a restaurant & monopolized a table after my meal was finished. But it did not feel the same – the escape requires books.

Or, I went to a library.  My favorite library is at Rice University.  It is quiet, it has soft chairs & couches & nooks for being alone or for meeting with fellow students or study groups.  

 The central library at U of H is too noisy, unless one finds a floor housing material not sought after by the masses.  The architectural library is a quiet place, a good place to escape madness & the abyss.

But I need something closer.  Which means a library.  I love libraries – some of my favorite & most interesting memories are of Houston’s downtown library. 

I will have to sneak in coffee.

I will have to remember a time without Borders or Barnes & Noble or Amazon.  

When I visited libraries & borrowed their books.  When their books opened up worlds & wonders & my imagination.

When I read books I did not own.  

 When escaping the madness & the abyss was not about a place or an environment, but about another book & something deep inside my soul.