Gratitude and Joy: Barnes and Noble and My Grandmother's Clock

Gratitude and Joy: Day 18

I am grateful for:

Barnes and Noble
Ah, Barnes and Noble. I have a little bit of a complicated feeling about B&N. I would rather shop in a lovely independent book store, both because I usually enjoy the atmosphere in independents more and because I like the idea of supporting small businesses, especially small bookish businesses. But we don't have an independent book store. We have a lovely used book store, which I do support, but our independent closed several years ago. Given my brick and mortar options for new books are B&N or nothing, I do chose B&N. And the thing is, I like our B&N. It's familiar and decently cozy and a fair number of the staff recognize me when I come in. I am the sort of person who prefers to browse in person for books, and I like to do it fairly regularly. And I'm pretty keenly aware of what it would be like to have no chain bookstore either. I lived through that for a while right after Borders closed down all its stores. (Ironically at that time I lived in a town that did have an independent bookstore, but a less inviting shop with more cranky, snobby staff you'd be hard pressed to find, so I mostly avoided going there.) I've never experienced a real book desert (I always could go into the Snarky Store), but I had just a sharp enough glimpse of the possibility of one to be grateful that our Barnes and Noble, chain that it is, impersonal as it can sometimes feel, continues to chug along.

I feel joy around:

Grandma's Clock
When my grandparents moved into a smaller house, they gave some of their things to various members of the family. I got a lovely wall clock with spiffy pendulum action. It's gotten pride of place in the living room anywhere I've lived since, and it feels like home to see it, ticking away.