Sunday, March 4, 2007

Memoirs from a Bookstore


My family and I had a crazy night on the town this past Friday! After a long day of playing & hanging out at the McMahon house we decided to swing by Jamba Juice for a nice fruity beverage and take a stroll around the Borders Bookstore here in town. There was this book about Ancient Roman History I’ve been longing to get (I know what you’re thinking….who wants a stupid book about Ancient Roman history?! Well, I do! I may be a total book-geek but I’m stinking proud of it!! The older I get the more I come to discover what pure treasure knowledge of the past & present truly is and how it relates to the quality of our future as a society and world. The more I study the history and current events of this planet that GOD has spoken into existence, the more I appreciate GOD’s Word and long for His Kingdom to be manifest. Actually I believe that if more people read good books instead of letting Oprah, Senators in the incubator called Washington D.C., and Jerry Springer tell them what to think and when to think it, we might actually be better off as a people and culture! Besides, this particular book focuses on Rome’s political and military history which when you think about it is actually so re- ...Ooops…there I go again…..what do you care? Anyway,). There are a few things I noticed while with my family in the bookstore during this excursion. I decided to share them with you kind young chaps who actually frequent my blog.

1. The children’s book section at Borders is A-MAZING! Annabelle was in awe of the colors and imagination that filled that place! Books and stuffed-frogs stacked to the rafters. Stories of talking elephants, flying kangaroos, princesses, bear families and more were everywhere as if they were screaming out for Annabelle’s attention. She was much more interested in this than in the Roman History section. Go figure!



2. It’s really difficult to flip through books while holding a giant cup of Caribbean Passion smoothie from Jamba Juice. I hope they don’t find that stain I accidentally left on a copy of Homer’s Odyssey.



3. My wife is so cool! The fact that I’m married to a woman who can have fun with me just strolling our daughter through a giant bookstore is AWESOME! It’s such a cool thing knowing we can have a great time just hanging out doing the simplest things! She truly is a Proverbs 31 woman!



4. Whoever woke up from a long night of sleep and suddenly came up with the idea of a giant bookstore with a giant café in it along with a giant magazine section right next to the giant DVD/CD section is right up there with Sir Isaac Newton & Alexander Graham Bell in my opinion! BRILLIANT!!



5. Barack Obama actually has 2 books on the National Bestseller list. Pretty impressive! He won’t be my choice for President in November of 2008, but you have to admit it’s pretty amazing that he’s had time to be a senator in Washington D.C., making crucial votes about U.S. policy and national security, traveling the speaking circuit, listening to and meeting with his constituents in Illinois, being with his family, learning what it takes to be President of a world superpower, and writing two Bestsellers all in the past couple of years!! {Anson winks while his tongue is in his cheek}



6. There are a lot of “Book-Grazers” in the world. You know…. people that somehow confuse bookstores for libraries. Get a card people!! Dang!



7. There is a book on the Bestseller list entitled The God Delusion. Man….that’s harsh! Sounds like that brother got burned by somebody or something real bad!!



8. Books are my weakness. My vice, if you will. For some it’s alcohol, for some it’s crack-cocaine, for some nicotine, for many it’s food or laziness. I have discovered that books are a weakness for Anson McMahon. The moment I walk into a bookstore my knees turn to jelly, I hear voices in my head luring me to the non-fiction and current events sections and I begin to see things “I must have or I will just die!!” Even more of a weakness to me than Best Buy is, and that’s saying a lot!!

Those are some things I learned last Friday night. But above all else I learned this: I love being with my family. Whether we’re at an Almond festival or a bookstore on a Friday night, we always learn something new. And to top it all of, I found my book on Ancient Rome! {Anson the book-geek smiles in eager anticipation}

3 comments:

mom said...

wow..very interesting!! Thanks for sharing your weekend with us!! Maybey I will make that eye appt afterall, and after I get some spectacles, I might actually start reading too! You make it sound so fun!!

RobertAGC said...

Does it ever blow your mind that the Wife of Noble Character pericope of Proverbs is the final thought, but that it is also grouped so closely with a much overlooked passage? In fact, it is preceded immediately by these sayings of Lemuel, "which his mother taught him."

The sayings of King Lemuel—an oracle [a] his mother taught him:
2 "O my son, O son of my womb,
O son of my vows, [b]

3 do not spend your strength on women,
your vigor on those who ruin kings.

4 "It is not for kings, O Lemuel—
not for kings to drink wine,
not for rulers to crave beer,

5 lest they drink and forget what the law decrees,
and deprive all the oppressed of their rights.

6 Give beer to those who are perishing,
wine to those who are in anguish;

7 let them drink and forget their poverty
and remember their misery no more.

8 "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves,
for the rights of all who are destitute.

9 Speak up and judge fairly;
defend the rights of the poor and needy."

UGN said...

I hope you are not dissing us book-gazers! I have read many books cover-to-cover while at Barnes and Nobles. Others I have started reading and then gone to the library to get one to finish. I know that this is OK because my wife always buys something to make up for my free loading. If I wasn't there "browsing" they woudl make nada from my family.