As a little girl with an embarrassingly bulldog-like underbite, I frequently journeyed from my small town to Jackson to remedy my numerous orthodontic woes. To help quell my fear of the pain I’d endure each time, my thoughtful mother usually promised some spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down before our trek home on I-20. Often, this sweetener involved exploring the world of wonder that is Lemuria Books.

Sometimes reverently, sometimes with wild excitement, I’d behold the book-bricked walls striped with color. My soreness was quickly forgotten as I explored the store’s nooks and alcoves, like an underwater cave teeming with treasures waiting to be discovered. With the staff as my guides, I lapped up page after page and selected my own book-treasure to take home.

As an adult, I remain enchanted. Every morning when I walk into the store, my heart still swells with hope at all the potential represented by the books cocooning me. They are comical or heart-wrenching; they are about Jackson or set in places I’ll never physically visit. And they help me cope with the pain of life, not to avoid it, but to swallow it without gagging.

Every Saturday morning, bright-eyed children scurry past the towers of books for story time. As they snuggle up next to our big, friendly teddy bear, they swallow stories that stir up peals of laughter while giving them courage to start at a new school or to forgive people who have hurt them. I share their wonder and thirstily  gulp down as much as I can, relishing the bitter turned sweet on the page and in their lives.

Compassionate customers come on behalf of those who can’t come experience the wonder for themselves, buying books to share with their neighbor who’s in the hospital or with an inmate who needs some humor to lighten her day.

Whatever your orthodontic pilgrimage, books help the medicine go down. Enjoy as many spoonsful as you can.

Written by Marianna

 

Jackson: photographs by Ken Murphy is available now for purchase. To order a copy, call Lemuria Books at 601.366.7619 or visit us online at lemuriabooks.com. 

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