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Breakthrough: Book Browsers Rewarded

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By TOM JACKSON

tjackson@tampatrib.com

Published: November 14, 2008

WESLEY CHAPEL - Whatever else may be fairly said of the instant Main Street that intersected with the central Pasco County-New Tampa retailing scene last month, this, at least, defies refutation:

More than any other feature, bauble or precedent at the new Shops at Wiregrass, a bookstore in the neighborhood changes everything.

No, really. Everything.

The big department stores, the precious boutiques - even the thematic eateries sprang up in response to a shared supposition that folks lured to this ambitious location (a) will have discretionary income and (b) require only the proper inspiration to part with it.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

But setting a bookstore in the midst of all this upscale acquisitiveness says, also: Thinking Anticipated Here. What could be better?

Growling Appetites

Affixed to the southern terminus of the mega-mall - its sign a-blazing, come-hither beacon aimed at the intersection of State Road 56 and Bruce B. Downs Boulevard - the 3-week-old Barnes & Noble isn't merely a retailer of books; it's a two-story cultural breakthrough.

For the tens of thousands living within the mall's penumbra, a trip to the bookstore no longer requires as much planning as a weekend away. Why, it is utterly conceivable that an appreciable number of folks from surrounding neighborhoods, discovering a spare half-hour on their hands, will wind up inside the shop without having established it as their destination until the moment they grasp the door handle.

The ringmasters of retail at long last have conceded what nearby residents knew for a decade: Build it, and we will come. Here, belatedly, but nonetheless welcome, is a brick-and-mortar acknowledgement of the region's growling appetite for the published and bound word.

Now, where James Porter's Boston Herefords once browsed amid palmetto stands and pine forests, humans browse for intellectual stimulation amid shelves labeled "Philosophy," "Current Events," "Literature," "New Arrivals" and more. And we are reminded, to our delight, why exploring a bookstore so thoroughly trumps the Internet book-shopping experience.

Bookstores fill the senses. We perform the slow, random waltz among the shelves not only to a serenade of background music, but to the steady thrum of purchases executed, snatches of conversation, and the hiss and gurgle of the espresso machine. We slide prospects from their displays, feel their weight and the texture of their pages.

Being inside a bookstore rewards the eye, which reloads faster than any ISP, and the suggestible mind. A bookstore browser can, simultaneously, review the summary on an end leaf and succumb to the distraction of another cover previously unnoticed.

He can be amused by juxtapositions - books on diet, health, fitness and beauty only steps away from "500 Cupcakes" and "Gingerbread Architecture." Shelves groaning under the collective wisdom of Plato, Sartre, Kierkegaard and Rand facing the temporal works of pop icons Dr. Phil and Delilah, nighttime disc jockey to the lovelorn.

Reading Opportunity

Bookstores are also vastly superior at staging events designed to encourage reading. Consider: At noon Saturday, the Wiregrass Barnes & Noble, partnering with the east Pasco chapter of Toys for Tots, launches its holiday book drive with hourly presentations by guest readers - at least one of them familiar to you (*blush*) - in the children's book section.

Just something else you can't get from Amazon.com. A cultural breakthrough, indeed.

Tom Jackson can be reached at (813) 948-4219.

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