Week 7 – A Local Bookstore

The first week of the program I went on a walk with a few other people in the program and stumbled upon “The Source Booksellers”, a little shop tucked away in the row of stores on Cass between Canfield and Willis. It specializes in non-fiction books, which as a pretty nerdy kid, I thought was really cool. As soon as we walked in we were greeted by and the elderly owner of the store, Janet, who wanted to know our story and all about our program. She was friendly and clever, as she succeeded in memorizing everyone’s name in our group of eight within the first minute of our conversation. After talking with her, we all meandered around the shop a little bit reading bits of books here and there, and pointing out titles and authors to each other. There was everything from biographies, to poetry, to photography books, to popular science works.

That day I read a short essay in a book called best American Essays 2013 — “His Last Game” written by Brian Doyle. Its about a man and his dying brother, watching a basketball game and reminiscing on life. This description hardly does it justice, and you can read it online here. I have two brothers, and we grew competing and watching every sport known to man, and even a few we made up (most notably zitchball which is somewhat similar to baseball, but uses a boogie board as a bat and requires frisbee tossing on defense). The essay definitely made me reflect on my relationship with my brothers, how much they mean to me, and what it’d be like to lose to one of them. I especially like this line:

“…because we have been brothers for 50 years, and brothers have many languages, some of which are physical, like broken noses and fingers and teeth and punching each other when you want to say I love you but don’t know how to say that right, and some of them are laughter, and some of them are roaring and spitting, and some of them are weeping in the bathroom, and some of them we don’t have words for yet.”

Since that first trip, I’ve stopped by the bookstore at least once a week to say hi to Janet and see what new books are on display. She’s always interested in what we’re doing and learning, and she gives us some insights about current events or new books. She also always gives us fliers for three or four events going on in the city, and repeatedly tells us “you need to go out and have fun in the city.” These visits have really become a highlight of my week, and I really appreciate all the hospitality and kindness that Janet has shown us.