Scotty Stevenson is not only an enthusiastic Time Out customer, he is a SKY Sport Commentator, the editor the SKY Sport magazine and a columnist for the New Zealand Herald. He has written a book with Cory Jane, Winging It: Random Tales from the Right Wing, which will be out in the beginning of August (just in time for Father's Day.)
There is a candy shop in Mt Eden, two doors up the road from a little bookstore called Time Out. Once a week, my two young sons and I head to the village after school for a treat. They can see the candy shop as we stand on the corner waiting for the lights to change. Who could blame them for being just a little bit excited?
When the lights change they practically run across the road, and when the reach the other side they both take a big, wide, gangly child arc to the left, and tear into the shop. The shop two doors down from the place that sells candy, that is.
The one that sells books.
By the time I get there, they are already sitting in the little kids room, with its baskets of books and its infinite coziness and its endless possibilities. On the doorway: their names and little pencil marks that remind me they were once both smaller than they are now. Back then they sat there and read picture books. Now they read books about farts, mainly.
Which is all fine by me, because I leave them to it while I browse the big table and read the recommendations (hand written, thoughtful, passionate) and try not to judge the books by their covers. And no one minds when I pick up a novel and read a few pages, or when I sip my coffee in the corner, or when my kids start giggling (loudly) while reading about farts.
I drive past the shop most days, but I never walk past without walking in. The window always looks wonderful, like shop windows used to look when retailers were friends instead of franchises. The sign outside always says something like “Good bookstores do still exist”, and who could argue with that?
I buy books as often as a can. Not because I have to, but because I want to. And I want to buy books from this little bookstore because I love it. I love it when its light is on, when it’s cold and dark and it’s raining outside and it looks like the most inviting place in the world.
I love it when its rush hour outside and that means nothing to anyone inside because who cares about traffic when you have your nose in a book? I love it when I walk in and the team smile and ask about my day and talk to my children and tell me i’m making a good choice. I love it when I want a book and its not there and I know it will be ordered for me. I love the fact that doesn’t happen all that often because every book I want is there. Especially the ones I didn’t know I wanted.
I love the fact it doesn’t matter if I buy something or not. It makes me want to buy something. I love the fact it doesn’t matter how long I spend in there. It reminds me not to overstay my welcome. I love the fact there’ll be cookies at Christmas, and candy at Halloween, and bunnies at Easter and for the rest of the year there’ll be books, and smiles, and advice and the lovely mumble and hum of customers old and new, browsing in the best little bookstore, two doors down from a candy shop.
