Bookstore Analysis

I walk through the glass front doors of the Borders bookstore at
the Northridge Fashion Center. I often find myself in here, in search
of a good read. I am an avid book enthusiast and a voracious reader
with appetites for history, historic fiction, poetry, romance, fantasy,
and noir, as well as the occasional sci-fi novel. However, today, I am
conducting a sort of experiment. A series of observations, if you will,
for my Pop Culture class.
I take a seat at one of the tables at the Seattle's Best Coffee
Shop within the store. To make myself look less like someone who is
conducting a social experiment, I grab a copy of the New Yorker from the
magazine section. I sit back down, pretending to be interested in the
magazine, while my eyes flutter all around me to catch a glimpse of my
surroundings.
To my immediate right, sitting up against the bargain bookshelf, an
Asian girl, probably in high school, is reading "Teen Vogue." She is
wearing a white tank-top and jean shorts. She has her iPod earphones in
her ears. Whatever she is listening to, I can hear vaguely where I'm
sitting. I can catch a reggae tempo. Bob Marley, maybe?
Also, to my right, a middle-aged woman is looking at the rack of
2009 calendars that are already on the shelves. She is carrying a big,
white handbag, and is wearing a pink top with beige pants. She is
looking at one whose theme is puppies. They are very cute. I can see
the golden retriever puppy on the cover.
Dead ahead, directly in front of me is a man with a bluetooth in
his left ear. He is wearing a faded pink Hawaiian shirt and shorts.
He's drinking some sort of ice-blended coffee and reading some magazine
about cars and auto-mechanics. He seems quite content and "in the zone."
At the counter to my left, a guy is buying something at the coffee
place. He is talking to his friend about "Citizen Kane" and how he felt
about it. She listens intently, almost as if she's hanging on his every
word about the film. I take it, from her expressions and intensity,
that she has probably not seen the film yet, but is very interested in
doing so. I can relate to her, for I haven't seen it either, but would
very much like to.
I, too, can go on and on and on about what I saw, but I found it so
mesmerizing just to sit down and observe the behavior and reactions of
people all around me. Being a theatre major, I do this often, as it
helps me to really study people so that I may be able to expand my
creative choices when tapping into emotions for various roles I perform
onstage. However, this was a little different, for not only was
observing their emotions, but their clothing, their actions, even the
things that they were looking at or discussing. It was very fascinating.
The bookstore, I've come to realize, is a very free, open place
where people of all walks of life can come to unwind from the stress and
tension of the weekday by losing themselves in a classic work or
literature, by drinking coffee, or just catching up on the latest news.
It's like no one really cares who or what you are. They just know that
they are all their for the same reason and for the same thing.