The Bookstores I Used To Dwell In

Some past Saturday evening, I walked into a bookstore. A simple thing really, but it's something I haven't done in many years. There are very few bookstores these days, so I was surprised to  find the huge Barnes and Noble at Union Square open and full of customers. There was a time when I spent entire days in bookstores, in that Borders on 53rd street in Hyde Park, lost in some adolescent dream or another. I remember the day I discovered J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter, I was 10 years old.  My mama, frantic with worry found me huddled in a corner fixated and enchanted. I'd devoured some 200 pages.

Books were my sanctuary. I consumed them feverishly, as if they'd be ripped from my hands at any moment. It got so bad that my mama would make me return a stack for a refund if I got through them in under a week. (Apparently I was too good to use my library card.)

I still read at this rate, losing myself on the train to and from work; or for hours tucked away in my ring box sized apartment. Only now, my books are with me at all times. It's the 21st century and I've gone digital, something I'd thought I'd never do. My Kindle currently has some 800 + books purchased over the past 4 years, and that doesn't include the ones I've rented. I'd thought I'd miss feeling the pages on my fingers, the smell of ink and cotton. But I've adjusted and adapted, just as I've done in so many other aspects of my life.

Stepping inside the Barnes and Noble I paused momentarily,  waiting for the familiar nostalgia to wash over me... But it didn't come. I wandered up the escalators walking through aisles, and even strolling in the DVD section (I am a cinephile after all) but still...nothing. Surrounded by so many books I've read, and the millions I've yet to discover; I felt empty.

On the top floor of the store, I paused in the African-American section (yes they still have those) running my finger over the book bindings while sipping my coffee, when suddenly the lights went off. "Ten minutes to closing" the announcement is bellowed over the loud speaker. I dropped my hand from the books, and made my way down the the first floor. Pushing open the door to the cool fall evening, I pulled my sweater around me leaving the 10 year old girl I was back inside.

xoxoxo Chocolate Girl in the City xoxoxoxox

Image: Giphy

My Hunger Games Addiction

Ever since coming to college, I have dreaded reading. Like literally dreaded it! I would clean my room and do all my laundry before I could bring myself to sit down and read something that was assigned to me. I have become one of those college students who reads the first page of everything and then reads the first and last sentence of every paragraph thereafter. This all changed last week when I realized that I forgot to change my address on Netflix so all of my DVD's are being sent to my daddy in Chicago while I'm in NYC (Smh, story of my life). Anywhoo, my lovely brother brought me the Kindle Fire for Christmas, and sadly though I had rented The Hunger Games at the end of December, I'd been using the precious device to mostly play Angry Birds.

My Love:)

But alas, for whatever reason last week I recalled that I use to adore reading, so much to the point where my mother would take books from me when I was on punishment. (I was a lovely non-problematic child). Maybe it was the fact that The Vampire Diaries was on hiatus or the fact that I only have two classes but something made me pull out my kindle and begin to read. Ten pages in I was hooked. The story is set in post apocalypse-North America and I know that sounds wack especially if you are a boogie Black girl like myself. But I promise its the SHIT.  I won't go to further into what happens because its a teen novel so it takes two hours to read. Anyway educate yourself and read it before the film comes out March 23rd. After that you'll have time to read the sequals. Trust me you'll thank me later. My only complaint is that because the books are "young adult" they are as dirty as they should be ;)

xoxoxo Chocolate Girl xoxoxoxox PS: I've been on a health kick so I suppose instead of overeating this and Ritz Chips have become my new obsessions.

Obsessed

PPS: The white boys in the film are cuties which makes it even better.