When I was a teenager, my mother would send me to the bookstore twice a weekto buy her “whatever was new.”
She’s been gone 20 years today.
I miss her.
I’m going to the bookstore.
So…what kinds of things qualified as “new” that you brought her, what did she like to read? Did she like all of it? Were there any duds? What did she do with the books after she was done with them? As a habitual cheapskate who never reads anything the public library doesn’t have, I am fascinated by people who actually buy books. Because after a while, isn’t your house, like, full of books? I do have books in my house, of course, but if I bought a copy of everything I read in a month, my house would soon turn into one of those Mad Eccentric houses, where visitors have to wend their cautious way between toppling stacks.
Would you have been able to persuade her out of the house in order to experience the Barnes & Noble ambience? 
I recently observed the 20th anniversary of my mom’s death – I think of her whenever I go to an art museum (I became her sidekick on her culture crawls when I was but a wee twickster).
My condolences on your loss – the poignancy of it can hit out of the blue sometimes, can’t it? Even a couple of decades later …
Mom & the Library.
I keep looking for new Mystery Novels.
She doesn’t need them, anymore.
I still have the books she used to teach me to read.
I’m currently sorting through my late fathers collection of books. If there’s many private collectors with more books on Ireland out there I’d be surprised. His area of interest was Irish history and specifically the history of his home county. There are piles and piles and piles of books. We own a few bookshopes too but I reckon he kept all the good books for himself. Ferd Burfel, I hope you find what you want or need at the bookstore.
I hear you, Ferd. One of the greatest things my mother gave me was a love of reading. It wasn’t just a ‘do as I say’ thing that I’ve observed in parents who want their kids to read. My parents both read for pleasure, avidly, and I grew up in a house full of books, magazines and newspapers. My mother always made sure we had library cards, and took us to the library as kids, and didn’t complain about a libary stop while out running errands. When I got older, I’d get books I wanted for Christmas. I still miss not having a big, new novel to dive into, in hardcover, whoo! on Boxing Day!
If you go to the bookstore, try The Crimson Petal and the White. It’s not new, but a jolly good read.
Duck Duck Goose: Yes, after a while, your house is full of books. That’s when one donates them to the big book sale, or takes them down to the used book store, or just decides… we need more shelves. 
Ooh, if I weren’t sick, I’d be at Bolen Books. I love the library, but they want you to give the books back when you’re done!
“New” was whatever had just been released in paperback. She was a big fan of the Travis McGee novels by John D. McDonald, she enjoyed historical romances, she was fond of those multi-volume epics that John Jakes did so many of. For a while, she read a lot of “Mandingo” and it’s clones.
She would read two or three books a week. She would read so much that the only way to ensure that she wasn’t getting a repeat was to buy the most recent releases. And we never had a Barnes & Noble near to us.
I have a genetic inability to leave a bookstore with less than a dozen books, regardless of my financial situation at the time. The rest of my family is worse. We would donate books, throw them out, give them away - but the piles just kept getting larger…Then I discovered online bookswapping! You mail out your old books (for $1.59) and people send you new ones for free! It’s a miracle!
What a fantastic idea, thanks for posting that link. Too bad they don’t swap in Canada. 
I think that there are some that are global - I know that the science fiction bookswap site is. Go through the list on wiki and see.
mischievous