The following is a copy of the notes I took during my shift today, with comments that I’ve added in now:
Overheard on June 15:
-“I force myself to finish books.” 😦 [Comment: This made me incredibly sad when I heard it. The woman who said it then complained to her friend that it felt as if she used to read four or five books a week. I wondered if this was true, or if this was just something she was saying because she thought that reading books was something that she should be able to do more easily. Other people who I helped later in the evening were unabashed about their inability to concentrate on fiction books, and while I felt very sad for them, because books are my entirely healthy addiction, I also appreciated their honesty.]
Seen on June 15:
-Blue-eyed, round cheeked boy, finding more and more books, shyly admitting “I like books…” [This made me happy, because I could tell that the boy would grow up to be an absolute stunner, and it made me joyful to see someone who I can see becoming a lady’s man enjoying books so much at a young age.]
-Some people walk around smiling all the time. [I don’t know why this is. It just seems that some people smile continuously, or whenever they’re out in public. It’s unclear to me if they’re smiling at someone, something, the world in general, or to themselves. Whatever the reason, they sometimes make me uncomfortable, but other times they make me think that I should smile more often.]
Slightly Ignorant 
I have found myself not smiling much over the years. Usually I’m lost in thought. While living in Belgium in a small village where no one spoke English, I found myself smiling a lot. People may have imagined that I was an ‘idiot’. But the smile that takes your breath away is when you smile and the other person smiles back at you, as if you have shared something wonderful.
I love those moments – sharing something secret and really inexplicable with a total stranger.
Love these notes!
I hope that little boy grows up to be kind and wonderful and bookwormish. =]
It depends on the mood I’m in; sometimes I can go around smiling like an idiot at anyone and everything and nothing in particular, and sometimes I don’t smile and don’t even make eye contact with people.
I hope he does, too ^_^.
I’ve never done the smiling thing – but I’ve done the looking down and away plenty of times. I guess we’re both awkward little kids somewhere inside, and just pretending to be grownups.
1. It would make me sad to hear someone say that they force themselves to finish books, too. I love reading so much, that it bothers me to think that there isn’t a single book out there that someone can’t like or enjoy. I just don’t buy it.
2. Fiction is wonderful and often relatable. When people say they can’t get into fiction, I think they just haven’t found a genre they like.
3. I am guilty of often smiling. I don’t mean to make people uncomfortable. Most of the time I don’t realize I’m smiling. I guess I just enjoy being out.
I know – it makes me sad to think that people are convinced that they’re not going to enjoy reading. But then I just wonder if maybe they honestly have other interests and can’t simply disappear into a book the way you and I do. And while it’s hard for me to accept that, I also don’t want to be one of those people who think that anyone who doesn’t read is a moron, you know?
I bet you never make people uncomfortable – you have a very pretty smile ^_^.