When In A Bookstore...

In the shop window you have promptly identified the cover with the title you were looking for. Following this visual trail, you have forced your way through the shop past the thick barricade of BOOKS, which were frowning at you from the tables and shelves, trying to cow you. But you know you must never allow yourself to be awed, that among them there extend for acres and acres the:

1. Books You Haven't Read
2. Books You Needn't Read
3. Books Made For Purposes Other Than Reading
4. Books Read Even Before You Open Them Since They Belong To
The Category Of Books Read Before Being Written

5. Books That If You Had More Than One Life You Would Certainly
Also Read But Unfortunately Your Days Are Numbered

6. Books You Mean To Read But There Are Others You Must Read First
7. Books Too Expensive Now And You'll Wait Till They're Remaindered
8. Books Too Expensive Now And You'll Wait When They Come Out
In Paperback
9. Books You Can Borrow From Somebody
10. Books That Everybody's Read So It's As If You Had Read Them
Too
11. Books You've Been Planning To Read For Ages
12. Books You've Been Hunting For Years Without Success
13. Books Dealing With Something You're Working On At The Moment
14. Books You Want To Own So They'll Be Handy Just In Case
15. Books You Could Put Aside Maybe To Read This Summer
16. Books You Need To Go With Other Books ON Your Shelves
17. Books That Fill You With Sudden, Inexplicable Curiosity, Not
Easily Justified
18. Books Read Too Long Ago Which It's Now Time To Reread
19. Books You've Always Pretended To Have Read And Now It's Time
To Sit Down And Really Read Them

-If on a winter's night a traveler
Italo Calvino

i've come across these categories of books in a novel we were assigned to read in my eng4 class (masterpieces in world literature) and...well...i shared it with you...coz...i find it funny that the author was able to actually contextualize how we really identify books when we come across it in...for example...bookstores...