About 3 months ago, a small book store opened up at the end of my block in South Philly.
This is significant because there are not many small businesses in my neighborhood aside from your local Mexican and Chinese takeout spots. For a bookstore to open up 350 feet from my house was odd, yet a blessing nonetheless.
The thing is—I had never gone inside this bookstore. The sun was shining today, calling for me to go outside the same way a child might call a friend to come out and play. I decided to take a break from work and walk to the park nearby. On my walk home, I saw the sign for the bookstore standing out of place in the middle of the sidewalk. I decided to go inside.
The shop owner greeted me as he organized books on the shelves. Nobody else was inside. I took my time strolling throughout the store, scanning the shelves, sorting through stacks of vinyl, reviewing the new releases. I made it to the back of the shop. Biographies. Religious texts. Geography. Poetry. And finally, literary fiction.
The truth is that I was hoping a particular book would be on the shelves, and sure enough, there it was, staring me down. I picked it up off the shelf and opened the front cover. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. In the top right corner, “$15” had been scrawled in pencil. Not bad.
I pretended to study the contents of the book shop a bit more, but my heart was content, I had found what I was looking for. I took the novel up to the register to purchase it. After exchanging some pleasantries with the shop owner, I took it home, sat on my bed, and started reading.
This book has been recommended to me countless times, mostly through TikTok videos and “Best Novels Of All Time” lists, yet I had no clue what it was about or what made it so great. However, after spending about 30 minutes reading the first two chapters, I can understand why it is so enthralling.
Truly great writers have a way of telling you everything you need to know about a story in a short period of time. In the first two chapters alone, the reader is forced to confront a brutal reality—poverty, alcoholism, prostitution, begging, lies. And yet, we do not look down on the characters in disdain, but rather we feel pity for them.
I’ve spent the last three months reading the works of Tolkien (The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings), and while I enjoyed them thoroughly, at no point was I as excited about reading those books as I am about reading Crime and Punishment based on the first two chapters.
I’ll report back once I finish…
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About 3 months ago, a small book store opened up at the end of my block in South Philly.
This is significant because there are not many small businesses in my neighborhood aside from your local Mexican and Chinese takeout spots. For a bookstore to open up 350 feet from my house was odd, yet a blessing nonetheless.
The thing is—I had never gone inside this bookstore. The sun was shining today, calling for me to go outside the same way a child might call a friend to come out and play. I decided to take a break from work and walk to the park nearby. On my walk home, I saw the sign for the bookstore standing out of place in the middle of the sidewalk. I decided to go inside.
The shop owner greeted me as he organized books on the shelves. Nobody else was inside. I took my time strolling throughout the store, scanning the shelves, sorting through stacks of vinyl, reviewing the new releases. I made it to the back of the shop. Biographies. Religious texts. Geography. Poetry. And finally, literary fiction.
The truth is that I was hoping a particular book would be on the shelves, and sure enough, there it was, staring me down. I picked it up off the shelf and opened the front cover. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. In the top right corner, “$15” had been scrawled in pencil. Not bad.
I pretended to study the contents of the book shop a bit more, but my heart was content, I had found what I was looking for. I took the novel up to the register to purchase it. After exchanging some pleasantries with the shop owner, I took it home, sat on my bed, and started reading.
This book has been recommended to me countless times, mostly through TikTok videos and “Best Novels Of All Time” lists, yet I had no clue what it was about or what made it so great. However, after spending about 30 minutes reading the first two chapters, I can understand why it is so enthralling.
Truly great writers have a way of telling you everything you need to know about a story in a short period of time. In the first two chapters alone, the reader is forced to confront a brutal reality—poverty, alcoholism, prostitution, begging, lies. And yet, we do not look down on the characters in disdain, but rather we feel pity for them.
I’ve spent the last three months reading the works of Tolkien (The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings), and while I enjoyed them thoroughly, at no point was I as excited about reading those books as I am about reading Crime and Punishment based on the first two chapters.
I’ll report back once I finish…
