Derby Square Bookstore

"Oh no, a bookstore. Don't let me go in there," I turned to Jonathan who was walking beside me.

"OK, he responded and grabbed my arm as we started walking by the bookstore on the corner of Essex St. and Derby Square in Salem, Massachusetts.

But the lure of the quaint-looking brick building was too much for me. As we neared the store, I slipped my arm from Jonathan's grasp and ran up the steps to peer inside the window in the front door. The sight that met my eyes shocked me. "Umm, maybe we shouldn't actually go in there," I said, stepping backward down the stairs, my eyes still round from what I'd seen through the window.

"Why? What's wrong?" Jonathan asked.

"Just look," I responded.

Jonathan's brother David decided to check out the store. "Whoa, that's crazy!" he exclaimed, staring through the window. "We have to go in there!" David pulled open the door and disappeared inside the store.

With David already inside, I decided maybe we should investigate further. I climbed the steps again and followed David into the store. Jonathan, Bryn and Ty were right behind me. Inside the store was even more impressive, or maybe the word was intimidating, than it had looked through the glass. Books, thousands of them, were stacked from floor to ceiling, filling the entire store. Thin walkways between the walls of books let browsers move from the front to the back, but every other surface was entirely filled with books. I wondered how often the whole lot came crashing down around poor unsuspecting shoppers as they tried to reach a must-have read they had spotted near the top of a stack.

"Whoa, this place is awesome!" Ty walked behind me between two book-walls, gazing at the spines covered with titles and authors. "Did you hear what the guy at the front desk said when we came in?" I didn't have time to answer before Ty continued. "He said that every book in here is 50 percent off!" That's amazing. I'm going to find some books to buy."

I agreed. Despite my misgivings about being buried in an avalanche of books, this place was amazing.

For the next 15 minutes, the five of us, as well as various other customers who ambled into the store, crowded the small store, looking for books to buy for cheap. David had a chat with the owner, a short man wearing dirty clothes who had long yellow fingernails that looked as wrinkled as prunes and was almost completely hidden by more stacks of books towering above the front counter. The man said that he goes to large bookstores that are going out of business and buys as many of their books as he can. That's the reason he can afford to sell each book for half price. Many of the books in the store looked quite new and even the ones that were obviously used weren't in terrible condition. In the end I found five books to purchase, but wasn't sure if I had enough money to buy all five.

"Can I just leave this one out until the end to see if I have enough money?" I asked the owner as I passed four of the books through the small opening between the book stacks on the counter.

He motioned for me to pass the fifth book to him as well. "Didn't you know? If you buy four books you get the fifth one free."

I blinked. "Is that a real thing?" Wow, that was about the dumbest thing I could have said I thought. Before I had a chance to reword my sentence, he nodded. "OK," I said, still a little unbelieving at this new deal as I handed the last book to him.

He flipped each book over, reading the price on the back cover and then using a calculator to figure out the half-price cost. He wrote down each price then crossed out the cheapest book, added the figures together, included tax, and jotted down my total. Then he handed the handwritten receipt back through the stacks of books to me. I gave him my bill and he returned my change and gave me my bag of books.

Tyler and David finally made their choices and went through the same process. Bryn, Jonathan and I went outside to wait. Inside was a getting a little too mildew-y smelling.

"Good thing I got out of your grasp and went to look in the window," I grinned up at Jonathan. "Look at the great deals I got."

"Yeah, but just remember that you'll have to find a way to get all your books home at the end of this semester," he grinned back.

Not even the thought of packing up my apartment could pull my spirits down from their book-buying induced high. What can I say? I just love books.