One our way back from an early appointment, we stopped at Denny’s for breakfast. I don’t think I’d been to a Denny’s in several years. For your information, I had a veggie cheese omelette and coffee.

The coffee struck a chord with me. The familiar, thick Denny’s mugs. I remembered so many afternoon and late night trips to the Denny’s by the corner of U.S. 19 and Main Street/580 in Dunedin, Florida. How many times did I sit down there with Matt or Damian or Scott or Jeremy and pretend it was the Left Bank in Paris in the 1920s? Discussing our still nascent understanding of philosophy, literature, politics, and art?

Across from that particular Denny’s was a now defunct bookstore called Bookstop. Bookstop was (I believe) a subsidiary of B. Dalton (which was bought up by Barnes and Noble). Bookstop was the first bookstore near my home that was more than just your run of the mill, shopping mall based, Waldenbooks or B. Dalton, with their collection of bestsellers and tripe. This one had poetry and philosophy and literature in translation and hosted readings by authors. It blew my mind.

It’s gone now. And, if I could travel back in time, I wonder how it would compare to the bookstores I love now. But, based on personal history alone, Bookstop has to be considered one of my favorite bookstores.