I’ve missed places that look like this for the past year. It’s been OK from a reading point of view. With plenty of unread books around the house, new books that have arrived for review, and book orders from a few of my favorite book outlets, I’ve not lacked for books. Perhaps I’ve spent more time reading books rather than looking for them. Ordering online makes me more selective. But with the hope of a return to some kind of “normal” and staying healthy (Lord willing), there are some bookish favorite things on my post-pandemic bucket list:

1. Browsing at our local Barnes & Noble with my wife and enjoying Caramel Frappucinos together and sharing our finds.
2. Selling the boxes of books that have accumulated in the last months at our local Half Price Books and seeing if we can spend less money than we get for the books.
3. There are a couple of newer bookstores around town I haven’t visited yet (ordered from one during a Small Business Saturday): Prologue Bookshop and Two Dollar Radio (I love the name). Two Dollar Radio is a brick and mortar indie that is also the headquarters of Two Dollar Radio, an indie book press.
4. Visiting my local library. It is always a good place to learn about new books that I missed or browse ones I’m interested in. At various times we’ve been e-book only, reserve online only or restricted in person. It will be nice to just make a leisurely visit to the library.
5. It has been a long time since I’ve visited one of the best used bookshops in the Midwest, the Book Loft, located in Columbus’s German Village. They have 32 rooms of books in this rambling store.
6. Among the in-person events I look forward to is gathering with people to talk books. I’m in an online book group with my church. It’s been good. I’m torn–one of our members is from out of town, but in person would be enjoyable.
7. Donating some books to a couple different organizations not currently accepting donations due to COVID.
8. I look forward to scoping out bookstores in towns we are visiting. No plans yet–just something that is always fun to do. Hoping some of my old friends will still be there.
9. Someday I hope to actually visit Hearts and Minds Books in Dallastown, PA. Need to find a reason to go to eastern Pennsylvania. I’ve been friends online with the owner whose newsletters I always look forward to. I love ordering from him and getting the meticulously wrapped books.
10. This would really be a lark, but having read about the various libraries funded by Andrew Carnegie, I’d love to visit and photograph some of the Carnegie libraries still operating.

A few of these are technically possible (and many are not due to COVID restrictions) but being in an at-risk population, we’ve been very conservative about exposures. We are able to start signing up for vaccines for our age group on February 8. I’ve no idea when any of my bucket list will be possible, but at least it is fun to dream about the day when these may be possible. However, for me, none are worth taking the risks while infection rates are high, so until then, I’ll keep working on that TBR pile!

What items are on your post-pandemic bookish bucket list?