The next time - okay, the first time - I have a large bankroll, I want to open a bookstore.
Not just any bookstore - it'll be a select mix of good new books and quality used books, including rare books. It won't have 50 copies of John Grisham's latest stacked on an end cap, but it will have 50 new authors showcased. The fiction/literature section will be expansive and the poetry section will be significantly more than four shelves framed in dust. The staff will love books as much as you do, and will be able to pinpoint any title in our inventory within moments. They'll also function as concierges. If we don't have it, they'll find it for a reasonable fee. You will test us with your most obscure and beloved books - and we will succeed. We will have science and architecture and art and travelogues and erotica and spirituality and philosophy and scores of other "ands." And you will love just wandering in the midst of all those words and insights.
The building will be a simple square or rectangle, two or three floors, with a central atrium & skylight. The stacks will be spread across the multiple floors around the atrium, with arm chairs and small reading/writing desks scattered around. Our space will serve as a casual forum - you will come to us when you want to find people who will argue with you and people who will agree with you, and who know how to do both well. You won't always be right, but that'll be alright.
There will be coffee stations - it will be plain and free. Cream and sugar, sure, but no Frappamochachinolatte grandes. Keep that noise elsewhere. There will also be tea - both hot and iced -available.
On the main floor, in the center, under the atrium, will be tables for eating and drinking. A big, heavy oak bar at least 100 years old will run along one portion of one wall, and will make any concoction in the mixological universe.
Food service will be as follows - a simple continental breakfast buffet that runs between 8am and 10am; soups and sandwiches for lunch from 11am to 3pm; fine dining from 6pm through 10pm. Perhaps tapas after 10pm.
Or ... y'know ... something like that. I haven't really given it much thought.
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