A Bookseller's Thoughts On... Well... Books!

On any given rainy day, you can find Sumner residents and visitors hanging out at , the indie bookstore-next-door that specializes in new and old books alike.

Paige Mitchell is "head bookcrack dealer" and has such a passion for books that she was willing to share her thoughts on how cherished stories have captured her imagination.

Visit Paige at A Good Book in Sumner and "like" them on Facebook.

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I sit on a wooden raft, floating down the Mississippi, a tall man named Jim by my side. I trip and fall down a rabbit hole. I stroll the hallways of Hogwarts with Ron and Hermione by my side. I battle on the side of good by the side of a great lion. I hide in an attic with my family, hoping they will not find us.

These are just a few of the journey's I have been on. There have been many- and there will be many more. These are the reasons I love being a reader... and a bookseller. The journeys, the stories, the characters, the emotions... and the fact that I get to help people discover them.

The reasons people read are as diverse and as interesting as the books themselves. Some people read to escape, some people read to learn, others read to find a connection with a story or a character they can relate to. For me, reading has always been a safe place, a place I can go to experience adventures and people that in real life I am not likely to encounter.  

I love working as a bookseller because reading is so incredibly subjective, my customers allow me to experience the books they love in ways that on my own I might not have been capable of. They help give me perspectives that are different from my own and challenge me to "think outside the box" when otherwise I might not have bothered. I love the look in a person's eyes when they find a new book to read. I love the spark and the glow they get when they talk to me about a book they love or a book that changed their life. I love how reading makes them feel safe, even if they don't realize it. When someone strolls the halls of Hogwarts or flies through the sky with Peter Pan, they are in a story free from judgment.

Anyone can be Harry's friend or Peter's lost boy, because there are no limitations in the sense that you don't have to be "coolest" or "smartest" or "most popular" person to read a book, anyone can open a book and read. I use a lot of fantasy novels in my examples, because I myself am a fantasy buff, but this theory is true no matter what genre you prefer to read. Books offer us a place to go to when the world around us isn't quite what we hoped it would be or in some cases, books offer us a place to find the answers that help us make the world a better place.  

So while I may be "just a bookseller" to most people, I prefer to think of myself as a "keeper."  A keeper of doors to infinite worlds and infinite possibilities. I feel privileged to be able to help a small fraction of the larger reading population find their way to the "doors" that are right for them. Mostly though, I like feeling that in my little corner of the world, I get to be the lead character in my own story, surrounded by the books and characters who I not only love, but who are a part of me.  Books define my world, they deepen it, they enrich it, they challenge it...and I am a better person for it.  

I like to think we all are.  I might be biased though. After all, I am just a bookseller.