CHICAGO—In a street interview Sunday outside Lincoln Park’s new Barnes & Noble, one patron leaving the store expressed her excitement for the five to seven business days she’ll now spend picturing herself reading the book she ordered.
“The best part is when you pick it up from the bookstore,” said Lesley Gill, 36, dreamily. “The whole drive home you wonder what’s inside and really start to believe you’ll read it. Books have the power to spark your imagination that way.”
“It’s something a movie can never give you,” she added.
The book—a friends-to-lovers romcom by Emily Henry—is slated to find its place on Gill’s nightstand so she can enjoy imagining its contents each time she passes by.
“In my living room I have a daybed next to the window looking out over the lake,” she went on. “It’s so relaxing sometimes to just envision myself curling up for hours with a cup of tea and a good story.”
To avoid excess clutter, Gill made space on her nightstand by giving away her copy of Ken Follett’s 1989 historical novel The Pillars of the Earth. Said the wistful bibliophile: “It killed me to let go of such a great book, but finally I admitted to myself that I hadn’t made believe I would read it in forever. It was time to share that experience with someone else.”
Since hearing about the Emily Henry release, Gill has taken special care to avoid reading any sample chapters online, which might otherwise dampen her ability to imagine their contents unfettered.
“It’s a shame when a book goes to waste,” she explained.