Bookstore discoveries

On a website we cannot discover anything, we can't bump into the unexpected book, because an algorithm predicts what we're looking for and leads us — yes, mathematically — only to places we already know.

Juan Gabriel Vasquez, Browse

Juan Gabriel Vasquez

Discovery is one of the great joys of visiting a bookstore. (It was still winter when I last stepped into a bookstore, so I am speaking from what seems like a distant memory.)

I recently read a biography of the explorer Christopher Columbus, who on his first voyage across the Atlantic had no idea what he might find or when or where he might find it. That's something like entering a bookstore without a specific objective in mind. Any shelf, any table might just hold that book that makes the whole excursion worthwhile, that book that, like San Salvador, will seem like a discovery worth celebrating.

Colombian author Juan  Gabriel Vasquez has it right. It's difficult to experience that same feeling of discovery when buying books on Amazon or some other online bookseller.

On rare occasions I do buy books online, but only when I know specifically what I am looking for and haven't seen those books in actual bookstores. You can find just about any book on the web, including those no longer in print. What's hard, even next to impossible unless one has all the time in the world, is to find that book you didn't know you were looking for but will cause rejoicing when you find it.