When Goldberry Books opened in downtown Concord, I was ecstatic about the new life popping up on the corner of Cabarrus Avenue. and Union Street. The fact that I could explore the stories found within the pages while sipping on a sweet iced caramel cappuccino from Press & Porter next door excited me even more.
Upon entering the store, I was welcomed by a young woman who looked about my age, sitting behind the checkout counter. Away from the couch and chairs guarded by a table of books in the middle of the store, I gravitated toward the left hand side, toward where the fiction books sit. Mesmerized by the books covering the walls and shelves from top to bottom, I was actually on the search for a new romance novel, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on the one book I was specifically looking for.
Nervously, I approached the counter and asked the young woman if there was a romance book she might recommend. She excitedly got up from her chair and guided me toward the end of the fiction section and picked out a book that seemed almost at random, but it wasn’t. After reading the book jacket, I knew not only that Tommy Wallach’s book “Thanks for the Trouble” was coming home with me, but that I’d found a bookstore I could call my safe place.
There is something about independent bookstores that just makes me feel at home. I could spend hours getting lost along the shelves, either rediscovering books that I haven’t read since high school such as “A Doll’s House” or .