Same aisles, new discoveries

The best part of a new city is finding the stores and must-see places.

And the best part of a new and foreign city is finding that country’s version of the stores and the must-see places you would find in the United States.

So on the first day of walking to my internship in London, I was excited to see I worked in an area filled with stores and restaurants. I was even more excited when I crossed the street to see a bookstore right on the corner.

Waterstones turned out to be, from what I could tell, the British version of Barnes & Noble. After this realization, the store seemed to appear in almost every shopping area I’ve traveled to in London.

As I browsed the aisles of the store, many of the books were the same titles I would see in American bookstores. But there was something different about browsing books in a new city.

It made me bolder, and I started picking up books I would have never read at home. Reading the back covers, I just wanted to read book after book.

I told myself, though, that I would check out some other stores before I bought anything. So, I left and later went to a smaller, non-chain bookstore nearby.

The smaller bookstore had the same effect, and as I wandered through the aisles, I paused to read book summary after book summary. But what really struck me was the settings of the books.

There were plenty of books set during World War II to choose from, and a few books that were set in the U.K. I was excited to realize I recognized some of London’s landmarks as they were casually mentioned in the summaries.

But the books with American settings seemed a little out of place to me. I wondered if British readers who had never been to the United States had a hard time relating to the characters in the American settings.

Then again, probably not. There are plenty of American influences in London. And in the travel section, I picked up a book about traveling to the United States, and listed inside was the IU Art Museum.

It was a strange feeling to read about something so familiar so far away. And maybe that’s why it was easier to pick up books that related to my new surroundings instead of books I would have read in the United States.

So even though bookstores can appear similar across the globe, stopping in could still lead to something new.