I finally figured out the reason I’ve been reading a lot less lately. Firstly, and positively, I don’t have to take two forms of transportation to get to work anymore. Now that the subway ride has been cut out (during which time I would try to land a seat and not look at ANYONE or anyTHING except my reading material, because trust me making eye contact on the subway just invites strange encounters), I’ve been more on the magazine track rather than book, since the PATH is a pretty short ride from good ole NJ.
The second and third reasons are that I’m no longer near Barnes and Noble, where I prefer to make my impulse purchases. Granted, I have 10-15 perfectly readable and good books right there on my bookshelf…but those aren’t new, exactly what I want to read at that moment, fresh out of the forest green bag, books. No, those are old books I’ve already purchased and they really just aren’t exciting anymore.
The reason for this separation? Barnes and Noble somehow actually went out of business in Hoboken. I don’t know the reasons for this, but it doesn’t make much sense. I can’t imagine sales were down in that store – not by the long lines I had to wait on most of the time, and the lack of any available space to sit down in the Starbucks cafe. So it’s sad, because previously spent many a weekend day browsing the stack and spending unnecessary money on piles of books and lattes.
The other reason is that I moved jobs. Now I’m downtown, which is closer to the PATH, but the only bookstore in sight is Borders, which is all the way on the other side of town, and you have to walk through the hordes of commuters near Penn Station to get to it. That just isn’t going to happen very often.
So, I’m not sure what I’m going to do. Ordering books online just seems so informal/not of the moment. I’m really more a fan of impulse book purchser. Sigh. This is another post to be filed under the “Life is Super Hard for Me Category.”
