An Antique Curiosity

So these photos are awful and don't even come close to convey the magic that inhabited this bookshop. My only excuse is that they were taken hurriedly and I was much too distracted to pay attention to my camera. This bookshop has a name, but I can't remember it because the moment I saw the books lining the windows I was pulled into an enchanted forest of the most beautiful pages imaginable. The smell of books is not new to me, but I felt a catch in my breath every time inhaled. I didn't want to let go of that glorious scent. The books themselves were lovely and chaotically arranged in shelves and mountains of unopened boxes. There were new books, cheap books, old books, fancy books, and books that date back so far to their original publishing date they might have been first or second editions. I held a book that was published in 1860. I've touched older books, but always under the watchful eye of some librarian or antiques shopkeeper. This little book was just perched on a shelf, whispering, taunting me to come leaf though its delicate pages and discover what it feels like to hold history. I love old things and I couldn't help but imagine all the people who had held, read, loved the book I was marveling at. I'm currently sitting in a house that is nearly as old as that book and I wonder about who used to live here, how they felt then, and what their life was like. Do you ever do that? There has been such life lived in this place and I'm sure it's seen it's fair share of sorrow, especially being in such a tumultuous place like Ireland. Maybe I'm just procrastinating all the studying I have to do today, but I get the feeling this house has seen students just like me stressing over the same silly worries and it approves of my study stalling. 

-E