"Solely Out Of Guilt" Bumper Sticker

You're starting to get sweaty. You've been walking around the bookshop for an hour now. You've already told the shopkeeper how much you LOVE books. You've mentioned the obscure topic you wrote your lit thesis on, about the food served in Georgette Heyer novels. After all, you nearly poisoned your whole family when you cooked a Regency Feast at Thanksgiving, at least you should be allowed to mention it every now and then. It's not classist after all, and you've said many times that the library is the tinderbox for the imagination of all people, that knowledge is free for those with the time for it. You get so excited seeing the stacks of books, smelling that familiar musty scent of your early twenties, when everything now past still lay in front of you. You know you have books at home that you haven't read yet, and you haven't actually read many since Uni, but you feel like you'd look rude, or worse- like a poseur- if you don't buy anything. You've said twice now how hard you know it is for small businesses in this climate. You said "Shops like this are important to communities! We need to support small businesses or one day everything will be run by amazon on some sort of post-currency digital credit system where you have to buy enough office supplies to be portioned out your weekly whole foods rations." Oh god, you're standing close to the door now, you're looking frantically for something to buy. Something for ten bucks or less, let's not get ridiculous. You see this sticker and rejoice, the perfect purchase for this exact situation. You mention again how much you love the smell of old book shops. "I really hope you have the mettle to keep this going, friend!" you say as you exit the store, smiling. You've done your part.

design by Jake @jaggre
text by me