There is a bookshop I can only find when I’m dreaming. I know its physical, real world location from my dreams, but in the waking world, I know the bookshop is not there. But I have visited this bookshop many times before, when I sleep. I never can buy anything from it, though, as I don’t ever seem to have any money in my dreams.
But I browse. The bookshop is of a decent size. The floors are made of polished wood, and there are large windows that let a lot of sunlight and warmth in. The lights have never been on when I’ve been in there, but they don’t seem to be needed. There is always enough sunlight - a clever construction to mask the fact that artificial lights rarely function in dreams. There is a counter close to one wall of the shop, near the door. There are high shelves of books all around the walls, and lower shelves forming aisles in the middle of the room.
Sometimes I see other people on this bookshop, but I can never seem to talk to them. They seem real, but I can never remember what they look like after I wake up. The shop keeper is always there, but is vague and non-descript. I can never seem to focus on him or her; I couldn’t even tell you which it is. The shop keeper sits behind the counter, never saying a word. And that’s what I like about this bookshop. I can browse without being disturbed. I can spend hours in this bookshop while I sleep.
The bookshop is a quiet place. It is comfortable for me, a familiar place. Dreams are often intangible, and make little sense, and the settings can change and warp so much. But this bookshop is a fixed place. It is always the same every time I go in. I can walk around, listening to my footsteps on the polished wood floor, looking at the books on the shelves, never knowing what I might find. I know I have found books that I’ve tried to find in the waking world, and they simply do not exist. And then again, some books are familiar to me - they do exist.
And that is another strange thing about this dream. I can read the titles of the books, and I have even managed to read words from them before. I can sometimes read in my dreams, though I’ve heard that is often thought to be impossible. Perhaps my ability to read in my dreams is what allows me to find and enter this bookshop. It’s often a busy place outside - I can see people walking along the street outside. That much is the same as it is in the waking world, and it is a place I recognise locally. That is how I determined where the bookshop was supposed to be in the real world, but it does not exist.
Sometimes I leave the bookshop and go to other dreams, not knowing when I’ll find my way back. Sometimes I wake up while I’m still there, holding a book. I am usually quite shocked to find myself in my own bed. This bookshop feels so real, so un-dreamlike, that I often forget I’m dreaming.
It’s hard to make myself dream of the bookshop. In fact, doing that seems to make finding it impossible. It is simply a place I find without really thinking about it. I’ve only made a few visits to the bookshop so far, and I’m quite intent to go there again.
The next time I go to the bookshop in my dreams, I am going to try communicating with the people. Perhaps they will not wish to be interrupted while they browse the bookshop. I do not yet know if these people are simply constructs of my dream, or if they are real people who are also dreaming themselves into the bookshop. If this is some sort of central hub where dreamers can meet, then the possibilities are extraordinary. Are there any other dream hubs? I will have to explore my lucid dreams to find them.
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honestgamer - May 20, 2009 (01:12 AM) Interesting. :-) |
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aschultz - May 20, 2009 (12:48 PM) Dreams are like that, aren't they? You can't work to say, I want to dream this, today. I usually have a dream where someone confounds me with a logic argument that shouldn't make any sense. I remember it when I wake up, but I never get to go back and refute them. Though weirdly, I think of solutions to other problems in actual real life as a result. |
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jerec - May 20, 2009 (04:15 PM) This bit of writing was inspired by a dream, but it was mostly just an exercise in writing some fiction - something I haven't done enough of lately. I've seen this dream bookshop twice in my dreams now. I might continue this story even if I don't get back to the dream bookshop, because stories of dreams interest me a lot. |
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bloomer - May 20, 2009 (06:02 PM) This was poetic enough that I feel that to make the jape about Borders I was going to make would only cheapen me. In the last dream I had which I remember, I was playing chess with the goth girl from the bus stop in my living room in the morning. Then the dream went into a kind of eterna-loop where I went to consult a book to see if some move was legal or possible, and I kind of stayed there in that 'glancing at the board, then glancing back at the book' way 'til the end of the dream. In real life I make a point of not playing chess. |
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honestgamer - May 21, 2009 (12:20 AM) If you have to consult a book to do it properly, I can see why that would be the case, bloomer. :-D |
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bloomer - May 21, 2009 (01:50 AM) Well, it wasn't at the level of 'can I move a Knight like this?' :) It was something like castling, except with this being a dream I don't know what it was. It may have been something non-existent. My real objection to chess is an equally complex but not non-existent distaste for finite systems in board games. I stopped doing any sudoku for related reasons.. though if I was in someone's waiting office and haaaaad to do something to stave off boredom, then I'd be prepared to do a sudoku. |
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