A few days ago we took our guests to Shakespeare & Co since it's a "sight" in Paris. It is also a place I've got fond memories about from prior visits.
In the fall of 1998 Maxine and I visited Paris. She was in Europe for a business trip and I came along so we could spend some time in France. She'd left for her business and I was still in Paris. We were going to meet again in Toulouse and I knew I had a long train ride to get down there.
It was a glorious fall Paris day and the air was crisp as I went into Shakepeare and Co. It's a dive. Musty and old, it wasn't even particularly near our hotel which was in the 7th near the great Rue Cler food market. None the less, I was there because it was an English language bookstore and I was looking at 6+ hours on a train. Wandering the store, I see book shelves can hardly stand up they're sagging so badly. Random selections. Some slope and were they not so packed with old books, they'd certainly topple to the floor. It's a rabbit warren of small rooms.
Every so often, tucked away in a corner of one of those dozen rooms, I'd find a cot with a mattress thinner than most sneaker insoles. The mattress covered by a cheap batik print pullover. A coffee mug or a backpack tucked underneath as evidence that someone was actually using this as their place to stay in Paris!
I wander, marveling as books continue to surprise me. I'm just looking for some relatively cheap used books that I could buy with the French francs I had in my pocket. Eventually, I end up with Schindler's Ark and Songlines. And another book whose title escapes me now.
At the front desk there's a frail older man, a desk piled with papers and books, and a cigar box for a cash register. I hand him the books, he totals the price, and I realize that the amount is slightly more than the all my francs which I've just pulled our of my pocket.
What he says next, so simple and generous, could not be more important to me. It is a beginning, a pointer for me. He says, "You're in here all the time. Just pay me the difference next time." I know it's not true... I can't agree and give up that 3rd book. Because, I'm not "in there all the time." I've never been in there before and I don't know when I'll be back. But, I realize that I want to be. I want to be a regular customer at Shakespeare and Co. As much as any single thing has influenced my life, those two sentences did.
Thank you Mr. Whitman!
No comments:
Post a Comment