If you are a book lover then you will surely empathize with me when I say that shopping in book stores, especially the popular ones can be extremely harrowing. Gone are the days when readers had respect for Literature and handled books with precaution and ensuring that it remained spotless for years. An experience in a book store (and God save you if there is a book sale) is fraught with jostles, chaos and the experience of never being able to find the right book in the right section. The reverential Jane Austens may be found on the floor of the kids play section if not amidst Tom Sharp medley of slapstick humor.

To add to it all bookstores have created special areas where prospective customers can review a book and then decide to purchase it. Started as a thoughtful concept, this reading section is a nightmare. Replete with kids, this area hardly gives you the impression of a place where one would like to take a few minutes to scan the latest bestseller. And the icing on the cake is the smudges and smears that these devils leave behind on the books that you consider precious. Though feeling the book lends a lot of substance to the final decision of buying, any book lover would resort to the less invasive method of buying books on the Internet. If you are looking for an older book or one that is not for sale or has been approved for re writing, then finding it on the Internet should be easy. The only small hassle that one may face while doing so, is the need to scan the search engine results to finally lay hands on what you started to find. But thankfully that can be done sitting calmly in the privacy of your home.

There has always been a lucrative market for books for children. Parents will know that the bedtime story is an opportunity for parent and child to bond. For some reason, human beings need stories and children particularly need that parallel world. Fairy stories, as well as being entertaining, also served to teach good moral values in the child. Then, books for children tended to split into stories for boys and stories for girls. This demarcation line is more blurred today. Boys have always tended to read adventure stories involving pirates, explorers, and soldiers. Girls were apt to read about ponies, finishing schools, and training to be a nurse. Occasionally in books for children, there would be a tomboy such as George in the Famous Five books. The past told of an idyllic world where children could safely play all day in the woods or on the river, unsupervised by interfering adults. In today’s books for children, the girls get stuck into dangerous situations as much as the boys. Take Hermione from the Harry Potter books, for instance.

The modern reader may think the classic books for children from yesteryear to be a little quaint, but that’s part of their charm. Reading them is similar to snuggling in front of an old black and white movie. It’s a comfort blanket. The world of Peter Pan and Wind In The Willows is reassuring. The Harry Potter books seem to appeal as much to boys and girls. Boys who had never expressed any interest in reading voluntarily now await the next Potter book impatiently. Some critics say there is no place for religion in the Potter world, and children should not be exposed to the dark arts of magic. Read any of the Potter books for children, and the child will learn about comradeship, loyalty and courage. Not bad values for any of us.