bookman's.

I discovered a new place to love today.

Today was a Brianna kind of day.
We all have those days when we need to take a moment, decide what exactly it is we want to do & then do it.
The kind of of day where you can either be alone or choose the moments & the people to spend it with.
Needless to say, it was a beautiful day.

A sign on the side of a building promises piles of books, "Bookman's Alley" can be found down a snow-crusted street. Two squat buildings face each other, encompassed by the retail shops hiding them from street view. I stepped from a sugary white world to a warm, dusty substitute of home.

Bookman's Alley smells of pages, moth balls and wood (at least, it smells like wood according to a 5-year-old visitor).
A bespectacled gray-headed man greets me silently behind a desk piled with stacks of books. He's wrapped in cocoon of words so I return the silent greeting with a quick nod & smile of my own.

A quick surmise of the room tells me this is the kind of place I'll return to often. Books line the walls with comfortable couches found in a grandmother's home interspersed.
Then I realize the this small building magically expands into three large rooms. I wonder if I'm still in Evanston or have somehow wandered through a magical portal where tiny buildings expand and old gentlemen guard the entryway to knowledge.


Architecture, history of the Sioux, Churchill biographies & waterfowl directories - these straight lines of thought capsules provide a glimpse of structure in a chaotic life.
Ah.