Barns and Noble Bookstore
On a sunny cloudless Saturday Jan 15, 2011, The Sarasota’s Barns and Noble was a popular place to be. I arrived there at 10:00 am, and around the store were a few older people walking around searching for books to read. Bookstores are a great place to go and find information on a subject that is unfamiliar to you or you’re just interested in reading a good book. The store is very organized with all their books, movies and cds. Everything is spaced out so there won’t be any tight corners to squeeze through. The store also has a spots were anyone can sit down and look through their collection of books before they go and pay. Those places are in some area in the store or in the café.
At one side of the store, I noticed 25 older (70 to 80 years old) people sitting next to each other and listening to one of the workers of the store. The reason why they are gathered is because they are learning how to use their new digital book called Nook (they just came out with Nook color). They were asking lots of questions to the workers of the store and the people next to them. Within the groups, there were groups of two. The groups of two were mostly husbands and wives. While walking around the store, you can hear the groups talking or the worker giving the instructions. There voices weren’t that loud that it would disturb the other people reading. But you can hear them discussing to one another in the confusion of this new digital device. It’s nice to see that the older generation of people of Sarasota is trying to learn more of the digital world that is happening right now.
That wasn’t the only spot with groups of people. In the children’s section of the store, there were little children with their parents (kindergarten and preschool) sitting on the floor circling another store worker reading storied aloud to them, started at 11:00 am. These groups had less number of people than the older people at the other end of the store. In the children’s section, there were about four girls and 3 boys. With the children, they were with their mom’s and one or two dads were there as well. The stories were educational and had nice illustrations for the children. There were books that introduce colors, numbers, and emotions (feelings). The reader would read a page of the story and then show the image inside the book to them. Also the reader will ask the children to join in on the story, such as asking them what is the character feeling, what color is this etc. The story that was read to them was Chrysanthemum. There was a pile of books (maybe 10 or more), and they were quick reads. Barns and Noble do these story times every weekend and maybe during the weekdays at the same time or earlier. If there isn’t a story time everyday, the parents will bring their kids will be the readers to them. They will sit on the floor and show them the words and pictures inside.
Like most places that has a café area, people will just come to sit and have a cup of coffee (or any kind of drink) and enjoy reading their book or going on the Internet. Sometimes people would end up spending most of their time in a place like Barns and Noble because it’s a great place to just relaxes and fined a new book to read. It is organized and quiet and the workers are very nice and will help you with a book that needs finding. No matter what the weather is outside, inside the building is never empty. A wide range of people enjoys going this bookstore. It’s a place to gather information and resource on any subject. It’s just a good escape.
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