Waterstones

Sunday, 22nd of May 2016

When you spend more than a month without internet or any connection with social media and the outside world, you end up shifting your attention elsewhere. My refuge became reading books, actually, to be honest, a lot of them, more than 25 in just a couple of weeks. 

I came here with only four books in my bag, thinking I would be so busy that I wouldn't even have time to read them all, but I was completely wrong.

When I first came here, I indeed had a lot of things to do, like go to the bank to set up my account, call the television company saying I wouldn't be requiring their services, dealing with the phone company, the internet installation or even decorating the apartment, but most of those things took their time and so I came to have a lot of free time while waiting.

I decided to catch up on my reading, since the previous year I hadn't done so well in that department. Reading is one of the things I like the most, if you see my shelf, you will understand that I do tend to buy a lot of books but then most of them also tend to stay where I put them, since time is not always on my side.

But now it was different, I had time, too much time. I quickly finished reading "Lolita", "The Phantom of the Opera", "The Museum of Innocence" and "The Double" and then I found myself bored.

I started to research bookshops around my area and I found Waterstones.

This is a dream place for every book lover and it is almost impossible to go in there and not come out with a purchased book or two.

It became a place where I could just relax, browse through the many and different section shelfs, read some english books and not be bothered for a while, just the perfect place to be after some stressing weeks.

My presence there became frequent and I do now own a client's card that gives me discounts on future purchases.

My book collection grew more than I had expected and now the only thing that worries me is thinking about how I will manage to bring my new books back to Lisbon.

From a girl thankful for this place,

Mariana Fidalgo