On one of the last Fridays to go, I stepped out as the sun decked the sky in all its glory and beauty and took a trip down Cornell Drive to post a few articles on the United States Post Office in Albuquerque at the third largest chic city in Ohio, Cincinnati. As I maneuvered my way through the numerous crooks in the bonnet and looked in amazement at the well-designed facility and the aesthetically structured building, I stumbled upon a treasure trove of a bookstore that fascinated me by the landscape and the atmospheric vitamins in it.
My fascination with books immobilizes me every time I see them, especially in large quantities. I had loads of clothes with me so I rushed to finalize my transaction at the post office and headed straight back to the bookstore. I decided to stop by and make a selection that would give me the best value for the few dollars I have to spend.
I lingered for a while as I rummaged through the thousands of books to make my careful selections. The bookstore is run by a… woman who gave her name as Laura. Laura is a hardworking woman in every way, young at heart – judging by the energy with which she organized books and the skill with which she arranged them.
I got into conversation with her and discovered that behind the older looking woman there is an activist who is very committed to her community and her books. She told me the store had existed for more than 50 years and pulled me aside to see the beautiful design, created to commemorate nearly six decades, to provide a platform that seeks to express attitudes and inner feelings in the Community change. Sure, books do that. They provide education.
Books in this bookstore have always sold for far less (than) their (retail) price. Plus, they have a great collection of used books that can be bought for a dollar or less, sometimes even free. The woman was also intrigued by my passion for books because I kept telling her the value of every book I saw there. I told her about the author when the book was published and tried to summarize it for her. And that sparked a lot of interest in her, which led her to wonder why I have all this information about books. I told her about the many years I had spent shaping my community through literary activism. I told her about the Success Book Club, the most active book club in Ghana, which was founded with the vision of eradicating illiteracy completely and giving young people a platform to rise and develop through reading.
In her day, she said, reading was taken up religiously by the youth. After a great chat with Laura, I left the bookstore with about five books, including Bill Clinton’s “My Life,” Dan Brown’s “Angel and Demons,” John Grisham’s “The Testament,” and Ronald W. Clark’s “Einstein, The Life and Mal. “
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