Bwogger reminisces on the glory of the bookstore since it is leaving us soon!

Dear Columbia Bookstore,

For some reason, when I came to Columbia as a freshman, I declared the bookstore (you) as my personal favorite place. I’m unsure why, but there is a possibility I wanted to seem cool and kind of performatively big on literature.

Regardless, you kind of proved to be one of my favorite places… so I guess I chose right. I will miss your silly (leather, I think) covers of old books and the sensory joy I could get from being able to run my hands across all the books. Your table categories are fun, browsing the merch is fun (it’s 300,000 dollars, so I window shop), and you are there for me when I quickly need colored pencils or something (shoutout school supply section).

On a real note, I grew up in a place with very few public libraries, so I would truly bask in your glory constantly as a freshman, and I will deeply miss it. I know you’re just going to be relocated, but there is something special about the Lerner escalators taking me down to you and the easy access when I was bored and wanted to browse after getting Ferris.

I remember I lost my headphones for 3 days and I was in my personal hell of walking around campus with no music. I ran to you in that time of peril and was able to quickly buy new wired headphones for $20. When I needed a cute last-minute card for my friend, you saved me then, too. Truly an underappreciated part of campus :( You are so fun. Thank you.

I will miss pretending to be someone who reads for fun. I lose performativeness with your departure.

Thank you for the memories. Shoutout forever.

Warmly,

Bwogger who is sad you’re turning into a gym. 

Image via Bwarchives