Our most recent trip to Lexington, Kentucky, to see our younger son ended up being all about books.
My husband and I took a few days to go see our 25-year-old, Scott, who moved to Lexington after graduating a couple of years ago from the University of Central Arkansas. We’ve been to Lexington before, and we’ve seen some of the sights — the arboretum (beautiful), the International Museum of the Horse (amazing) and a distillery (fascinating, even to a nonbourbonite like me).
This time, we didn’t have any grand plans.
My husband, son and I (and our other son) are huge book-lovers. Scott took us to the Friends of the Library Book Cellar, which sold donated books and magazines cheap. I love magazines, but they’re expensive. I bought several for 50 cents each, but I didn’t buy any books.
Triangle Park, which is near the library, has a kiosk with free books. Just that day, I had mentioned on social media liking Southern writer Eudora Welty, especially her short story “A Worn Path.” I even Googled The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty, which I’d read in college.
I opened the free-book cabinet, and lo and behold, there was the Eudora Welty book that I’d thought about. When I opened it, the first story I came to was — you guessed it — “A Worn Path.” It was almost creepy, but I was thrilled.
The book theme of the trip was punctuated by public art — Book Benches of Lexington, a tribute to Kentucky authors. Thirty-seven artists were chosen to paint benches that were shaped somewhat like an open book, with the theme of a book.
We took a walk downtown to find some, and we spotted four. They were beautiful, although not the most comfortable benches in the world.
After dinner one night, we went to a two-story, independently owned bookstore. We had only an hour before the store closed, and I spent most of it in the children’s section, looking for something for my book-loving 15-month-old granddaughter, Kennedy. I couldn’t make a decision on a book, so I ended up with just a puzzle of animals that made the accompanying sounds.
We took a day trip to Louisville, and we went to two bookstores — a book-and-record store, and then we hit the mother lode. Our son spied an old two-story house that had a handwritten sign on the porch that said “book sale.” Was it ever.
The older couple who owned the store said it was their last day in business. Children’s books and nonfiction were 50 cents; fiction books were 10 cents. My knees buckled a little when I heard that.
Room after room had shelves of books, labeled by genre, in what used to be a family’s home. Although the inventory had been picked over, we still managed to find several treasures, especially our son, who works at the Lexington
Public Library. His experience enabled him to quickly scan and recognize what he wanted. He filled a box in no time, while I was still getting my bearings.
After spending what seemed like an eternity in the children’s books, I didn’t spend enough time in the fiction room, which I will regret till the day I die. I did get a few old children’s books and a couple of 1950s medical books for my brother.
We went back to our hotel room, and I looked through Scott’s eclectic picks, a few of which were The Turn of the Screw; The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation; Steven Spielberg and Philosophy: We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Book; and Harvest of the Lowlands: An Anthology in English Translation of Creative Writing in the Dutch Language With a Historical Survey of the Literary Development, as well as two signed books from Kentucky poets and a signed book from Robert Pinsky, a former U.S. poet laureate — and a couple of video-game guides.
We all sat around our hotel room reading quietly, occasionally commenting on something we read, and I was happy as a clam.
Then I packed my bounty of books and magazines the next day and read, read, read all the way home.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.