Happiness is a Bookstore

I can think of very little that makes me happier than a bookstore. Bookstores with coffee shops are particularly great. The smell of freshly-brewed coffee and literature is just wonderful. Though not a coffee drinker myself, I can't help but want to curl up in one of the nice leather armchairs, commonly found at bookstore, with a warm cup of coffee and read the book I've just purchased. I have been in a rut recently, opting to watch television rather than read. Now my bookshelf is full of lovely, unread books but none of them were appealing to me at the moment. Therefore, a couple of days ago I made trip to Barnes and Noble in search of a new novel. I first headed to the "young adult" section of the store (because its right by the door) and it turned out to be a MASSIVE disappointment for two reasons. Reason one: I recently watched Princess Diaries 2: The Royal Engagement, maybe on ABC Family. I'm a sucker for a good love story so naturally I am fan of the movie. I decided that maybe I should read the books by Meg Cabot because they were good enough to be made into two movies. A lot of my friends read them in the middle school  years and I never did, so I figured I was missing out on something good because like I said they were made into movies. I wanted to start on the book that the second movie is based on because its my favorite of the two, and here comes massive disappointment number one: the second movie is not based on a book at all! In fact, Disney seems to have packed to whole series into the first movie! Needless to say, I did not get the book. While browsing the rest of the section looking for anything interesting I stumble across massive disappointment number two: Barnes and Noble has at least four sections of a bookshelf dedicated to "Teen Paranormal Romance." I am slightly confused as to what this entails. Is it strictly limited to our vampire and werewolf friends? Or does it expand to include the whole realm of mythical creatures like ghosties and unicorns? It's hard to say based on the covers (I was too lazy to actually pick up the books and read the backs). Nearly every book that falls under the category of "Teen Paranormal Romance" shares the same dark color palette and picture/graphic that attempts, in vain, to look intriguingly scary. Leaving the teen section empty-handed, I ventured to the expansive fiction section to look at the gloriously cheap Barnes and Noble classics. In an attempt to become more "well-read," I've decided to work my way through all the classics or at least those that are of interest to me. My latest selection is William Makepeace Thackeray's Vanity Fair. Though nearly seven hundred pages long, I am really excited to start reading it!