Bookstores

Bookstores are dangerous places. I've come to truly believe this. Whenever I walk into them, most especially used or secondhand bookstores, my heart rate increases while my stress level simultaneously decreases. It's like I've walked into paradise. Used bookstores are so much better than new bookstores. The books you can find are just wonderful. Whether they're old, out of print, or completely unexpected, you're sure to find it there.
My favorite part of used books must be the fact that other people have owned them. I love opening up books and finding marginalia, small notes, underlined passages, and highlighted words. That means that those quotes meant something to other people. It's so cool! (Needless to say, I think it's completely okay to write in books.)
I love getting lost in a bookstore. Especially those bookstores where there are large stacks of books that lean this way and that. (Unless the book you want is on the bottom of the stack. But what's life without a little risk?) I don't even mind the slightly worn, musty smell that pervaids most used book stores. That is the smell of knowledge.
It probably wouldn't surprise you if I revealed that, for my seventeenth birthday, I asked to go to a secondhand bookshop. One of the best birthdays ever.