Setting: Local big-box bookstore

Me: I love when my next day's blog post practically writes itself.

Hubby: Yeah, what an idiot.

Background: After a looooooong (did I mention loooong?) day at the hubby's parents' house (as he fixed his car and I did laundry), we treated ourselves to a trip to the bookstore.  I bought Kate Harding's Lessons from the Fat-o-sphere: Quit Dieting and Declare a Truce with Your Body and Stephanie Klein's Moose: A Memoir.  Hubby bought a guitar mag and a couple of Star Trek books.  As I waited in line, hubby wandered off to check something out.  While he was gone, a mother and her two daughters came and stood next to me.  Not behind me, following the natural path for the line, but next to me - for no reason I can figure.  I anticipated that when the hubby came back, she'd be shooting me a dirty look for letting him "cut" in line - even though she wasn't technically in the line.

Clueless mother: Are you in line?

Me:  Yes . . . the line goes this way.

Clueless mother: I know.

[enter hubby]

[enter Clueless mother's glaring stare]

Me: This is my husband.

Clueless mother: Uh huh.

Clueless daughter: Wow, Mom, look at this book!

Clueless mother: What is it?

Clueless daughter: [reading slowly] Um... The Yale... Shakespeare... Complete Works.  Wow, it's huge!

Clueless mother: Yeah, that would be a VERY boring read.  Hahaha!

Clueless daughter: Hahaha, I know, right??!

[I look at the hubby with eyes as wide as saucers because I can't say out loud what I'm really thinking, lest I start a book brawl.  Luckily, hubby can mind-read me.]

Me [whisper]: Wow, I love when my next day's blog post writes itself.

We checked out and as we walked out, started to whisper, "Oh ... my ... god."  My rant began as soon as we hit the parking lot.

Now, I do not expect everyone to love Shakespeare.  As much as I do love Shakespeare and sometimes tear up at the beauty of his words, I will admit that I find him hard to read due to the language.  If you can believe it, I actually failed - failed, as in "F" - TWO (not one, TWO) semesters of Shakespeare in college (mainly due to not writing my papers or taking the final, but that's another chapter in this book of mylife).  I aced Shakespeare in grad school, though - mainly to prove to myself that those undergrad courses were an erroneous blip in my academic career.

But I digress... I'm used to reading quickly, so the amount I have to slow down to comprehend what's going on in any of his plays makes it hard.  That said, I cannot comprehend a mother making a statement that precludes allowing her daughter to form her own decision.

I firmly believe that a parent should encourage reading AND encourage nearly anything a child is interested in (within reason, naturally).  You take your daughters to the bookstore and then tell them Shakespeare would be boring?  Do you realize that most of what you probably do find entertaining is most likely based on something he wrote?  Do you realize that a majority of what we think we know about personality and human nature was invented by Shakespeare?  Do you realize the effect that mothers have on daughters and that, even if your daughter was interested in Shakespeare, she will now probably put off that interest since you pre-emptively derided it?

This bookstore holds many of my favorite memories.  When it first opened, my parents would take us there and we'd leave with $200+ worth of books between the five of us.  My parents always showed interest in what we were buying, often asking more about the books - what they were about, why we were interested in that topic or genre, etc.  They never made us put one back.

Years later, this same bookstore was the location for my first date with the man who is now the hubby.  I go there often enough on my own, but when we go there together, I can't help but smile to myself, remembering that night.

Bookstores are packed with great opportunities for imaginative exploring, if one is allowed to explore freely.  I hope that girl goes back and flips through a Shakespeare book for kids when her mother's not looking.

Yesterday: The chocolate-ricotta tart turned out really, really yummy.  There was none left when we went home. Score!

Today: Working two jobs, 8am-5pm and 6pm-9:20pm.  Tired.  Not used to working at 8am.

Tomorrow: Rinse, repeat of today.