I’m Silently Correcting Your Grammar

I am sure most of you who have read the title of this post and wondered why I’m silently correcting your grammar?

Call me old-fashioned, but to me there is nothing quite like the beautiful tactile sensation, feeling of weight in hand, and oaken smell of the open pages of a real book while you are holding and reading it.

This is one of the reasons I still love books. And in a parallel sense, one of the main reasons why I still love old-fashioned things.

Hence why I’m silently correcting your grammar.

But in an even greater sense, why I still love cool old-fashioned mom and pop neighborhoods.

Such as the horrifically anachronistic throwback neighborhood of Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

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Greenpoint: A Throwback Community

Greenpoint, Brooklyn is a cool laid back urban community right across the river from Manhattan, far less gentrified than Williamsburg, still having many mom 'n pop shops along its main thoroughfare Franklin Street.

Yesterday while in Greenpoint, we were in the Polish-American neighborhood of Greenpoint Brooklyn, at the throwback bookstore Word for the book signing of debut author Ellen Goodlett's new fantasy novel "Rule".

I love this bookstore!

Word Bookstore is one of those gems. Such bookstores are becoming scarcer these days with Amazon’s Kindle and a plethora of online subscription services such as Unlimited, Scribd, and Playster overtaking them.  And then you also have Audible.

But I still love those lost book store gems.

Such a backward and inviting warm charm, and so many “good olde things” such as rare find books residing its dusty shelves!

On its website, it claims to be one of the “independent community bookstores” in New York City and New Jersey.

In other words, “Word” is a rare gem that harkens back to the not too long ago but now forgotten days when it once was nice to grab a book off one of the shelves, and find a nice private corner on the floor inside a bookstore where one can curl up and read.

Here are some of the comments I have already received:

“Ohh Kaju- I can almost smell the books in the picture. So beautiful and I have a few old favourites and here in my town we have a second-hand bookstore filled with treasures and the old guy that runs it is so full of stories of the old days. Intriguing to listen to and I know you would love it
Thank you for taking me to Polish Brooklyn. Having never been to the States, this makes me want to add yet another place to my list of where to visit. You rock :)” – Anonymous

“Beautiful! I hope books never go out of fashion. And it's always heartwarming to see young kids engrossed in books during book fairs and in bookshops. Unfortunately, in my place, there's no bookstore worth the name now. The old ones have either closed down or have been transformed into cloth stores. But thanks to Amazon, I still buy books regularly. It's an addiction. It's another matter that I hardly read them nowadays 🙂 They actually have a word for this affliction. Tsundoku - buying books but not reading them”. – Anonymous

What fond memories this post brought back. I grew up in a small town where we had all those
things...bookstores, antique stores, an ice cream store where they hand made the ice cream and would even make special flavors on request, and a grocery owned by a couple who lived in the upstairs apartment.

The entire wall behind the counter, from floor to ceiling, was penny candy of every kind imaginable! We knew all these store owners by name, many were our neighbors.
Gone are the days when children could "free range" all over town visiting their favorite stores and meeting up with friends...my grandchildren will never know what they've missed. – Anonymous

Love books, love the smell of an old bookstore, and loved all your photos. Great work. Thanks for reminding me there are still places like this in the world! - Anonymous

Books are just magical, and one of the things I love about being a parent is sharing the joy of books with my kids. I have ALWAYS said to my boys that they can have as many books as they like, and their bookcases are overflowing. They love reading as much as I do and that makes me feel so proud of them!
They turned turn 10 a few weeks ago and every night we still read a book together. I hope it gives them wonderful memories that they cherish forever 🙂 - Anonymous

Now let me take you on a short tour of this ethnic charming neighborhood where this wonderful throwback bookstore resides.

We shall take a short break and take in the beautiful view, before I go back to the beginning stage where I’m silently correct your grammar.

I'm Silently Correcting Your Grammar at The "Rule" Book Signing Event

The author Ellen Goodlett is a striking young lady who only recently burst onto the scene with a new fantasy fiction novel “Rule”, and is currently doing a successful national book tour.

We were first introduced to Ellen by a mutual friend only the day before, and it was a pure joy for us to be invited at the last minute to her debut book signing event!

Her new book “Rule” is a fantasy about a Kingdom with three girls and three deadly secrets. Only one can wear the crown. The plot is the king is dying, his heir has just been murdered, and rebellion brews in the east. But the kingdom of Kolonya and the outer Reaches has one last option before it descends into leaderless chaos. Or rather, three unexpected options.

There was a really nice crowd that attended.

And to honor the author after he interview, they brought out a very special surprise cake which was an exact replica of the book for all to enjoy!

Our resident social media expert is also a published book author in her own right. So naturally, after her interview she wanted to meet and “talk shop” with Ellen.

So here are Felicia with Ellen both sharing and wearing their book authorship “crowns.”!

The Cake Cutting Ceremony

In the end, we all celebrated with the ruler of our kingdom Royal Ellen cutting her “Rule” cake for our entire book-reading entourage. All done with an infectious smile.

"RULE" is the Word!

Such a joy to meet new creative young people in the authorship world.

And such a joy to see them becoming successful.

This all reminded me why I STILL love books.

Not the online types, but the real old-fashioned ones.

And why I still love old-fashioned things.

And why I still love to write.

And in our 21st century high-tech world, the reason I still love cool old-fashioned places like the lost “mom ‘n pop” book stores such as the Word that still exist today in old-fashioned neighborhoods!

Like in Greenpoint Brooklyn.

And this great Polish restaurant where we went to eat afterwards that charged prices from the 1970's!

In the end, before we left Word as we were walking about the aisles, we discovered this “cheeky” plaque that was hanging out on one of the shelves, which I thought summed up everything up so well.

It was so fitting that I named this post after it, and have since been pestering you ad nauseum with the phrase.

It's message being one of the reasons why I always used to loved it when people would read stories to me - and the mischievous thoughts of the mind such great parables would conjure within me from the oaken pages of real old-fashioned books -

“I'm silently correcting your grammar”