The Bookstore. Since I was a teenager I've been enamored with bookstores. I just really love to read and appreciate a truly beautifully crafted sentence. I love the smell of old books. I love wandering around used bookstores or those "thrift shops" that just have a small book section.

Mom typically teases me when we go to the mall because I will wander into those stores that sell those coffee table books and well...yep, I'm a fanatic.

I realize that frequenting used books stores isn't exactly what every author dreams of when they hope for their book to be read however a gal on a budget who reads as much as I do can't really afford to feed the habit even with 10% coupons from Border's.

That's why I enjoy The Bookstore. They have this recycling program where you bring in your used paperbacks, they give you credit and then with some sort of mathmetical 20% of 20% of something you can get a whole heap of books for a few dollars. (I think I must have walked out of there tonight with about 15 books for $7.00)

Granted, mostly they carry romances - which I love to read. But they also have western, modern, a few shelves of non fiction. What I also enjoy is they have these spinning racks where they separate out romance authors and in particular my favorite author - Debbie Macomber has a whole side of a spinning rack dedicated to stories. They also separate the stories out by theme - say you want to read about a cowboy - well wa-la suggest cowboy stories. Want bible-based romance - wa-la a rack of it's own.

But I have a dilemna. It may not seem like much...so you just switch books to read or hey...spend time reading the bible right? Yeah. That's not so easy to do...at least for me.

It's such a small thing but lately I've been really trying to figure out what it is I'm doing that's not in line with what God wants me to do. So we're sitting in Caribou Coffee and this text comes up - "But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving."

Yikes. Surely not all of the romance that I read are that bad right? They don't all just jump into bed on first dates right? There's actually a story there that's more about commitment and love than obscene? How do you even define what's obscene nowadays? (And yep, just rhetorical question.)

I really do attempt to select books that aren't the steamiest of the set and conveniently Harloquin has now divided their lines of romances into story caliber. But c'mon - "even a hint" of impropriety - that pretty much rules out one of my greatest vices.

I don't really know why I enjoy reading the romances so much - maybe a bit of it is that ever since I heard the story Cinderella, I can't help but hope for a prince to appear. But more than that, I guess I'm a believer in relationship and an endearing one is that between a man and a woman. Instead of reading a mystery that mostly gets me anxious about solving it or some complicated Tom Patterson book I don't understand...a little fluffy banter is a mighty fine way to relax.

And so I sit somewhat drawing one of those grey lines again. When I know the answer.