Books or burgers

At garage sales, I look for used books: a copy of an children’s book for the grandkids, a novel I might read, or an old book reflecting an earlier era.
The corners of our re-modeled the home are filled with shelves of books. Even in the laundry room I am surrounded by three overflowing book cases handy for reading while ironing or sorting clothes, of course.
When I pack for a trip, I grab a stack of books and magazines. The fewer people traveling with me, the quicker the back seat becomes a traveling library table.
During a recent trip we traveled with a couple adult offspring, so we had fewer books and more stops for stretching, including one at a fast food franchise. Frequently this kind of burger flipping joint features a huge playground done in kid-friendly primary colors, with a light hearted decor inside and plenty of child oriented activities and seating.
From the parking lot, this particular greasy spoon looked much like all the others in the chain, albeit without a playground. Inside, the maroon and navy decor reminded me of by-gone times with its display of antique tools, wood wainscoting, quaint cola signs at the soda fountain and, smack dab in the middle of everything, a bookshelf with real books! It was unbelievable! a fast food joint with a comfortable atmosphere and books for guests to sit and read a spell.
As we waited for our order to be filled, I walked over to read the titles on the backs of the cloth bound books. They included an old Algebra book, a novel I read years ago and a biography I had not read. I reached up, hooked my finger onto the biography’s spine and tugged. The whole section of books tipped.
The books had been hot glued together.
I pushed the clump of books back into place, looked around at the library-like restaurant and savored the irony. The warm, friendly ambiance of gentility belied the hamburger joint’s flurry of activity to feed masses of people quickly. While the Victorian library theme hinted of a dining room with china, silver, linen napkins and tea, the franchise handed out paper wrapped hamburgers, cardboard cartons of fries, plastic mugs of sticky soda, tissue thin paper napkins and plastic sporks. With a few minutes of time and pennies worth of hot glue, an interior designer ensured that the work of scores of authors, editors and publishers would not be read at that establishment.
A corporation which encourages higher education with university scholarships for their college bound employees, had authorized the placement of books in the dining room with a strong message, “Look, but do not read.”
Books are meant to be picked up, the pages turned, the chapter headings and short passages read with the hope that the one scanning it will wander over to a corner booth and settle down for a good read. Certainly, books should be handled with care so they last, but they are not written to be continually and perpetually arranged in rigid, tidy, neat rows on shelves.
Open, accessible books are the door to education. However, at this fast food place, they were carefully selected for their size and color, not their subject or story line. Intriguing, even educational books were glued into the background for passing crowds of hungry folks to glimpse while grabbing a burger to gobble before heading home to burp the evening away in front of the television set. I pity the children who eat at that restaurant. They are so close and yet so far from more adventures than can be found in a hundred carefully designed playgrounds.


Posted

in

by

Tags: