Not too long ago I decided to spend my Saturday at Chamblin Bookmine, a bookstore located in Jacksonville, Florida. The company has two locations in Jacksonville, one downtown and the other in Ortega, and I ventured to the Ortega branch because it’s much larger.

I fully expected to walk out of the store with more books in my hands than I intended, and that is exactly what happened. I had been looking for a few books I had on my to-read list. I love to read the classics, from Jane Austen novels to Thomas Hardy stories, but I also like to stay up to date with some of the more recent books I hear people rave about.

This bookstore is a maze, and I would be lying if I didn’t say I somehow get lost each and every time I visit. Bookshelves upon bookshelves stretch as far as the eye can see, with handwritten labels to indicate the aisle. You have to constantly look for these handwritten signs to find the genre you’re looking for; otherwise, you’ll be completely and utterly confused.

I made my way to the classics section first and selected a few books, including Portrait of a Lady by Henry James; The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch; and Hard Times by Charles Dickens. I then made my way back to the front to see some of the bookstore’s newest additions, and I ended up selecting Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens after some of my friends recommended it.

My father and I love to visit this bookstore often, as it sells books at a great price and even accepts books you no longer want in exchange for store credit. Interestingly enough, Chamblin Bookmine also sells new books and rare editions of books, so any book lover who enters its doors will never want to leave … or might not even be able to with all of the aisles and passageways.

— Aoife O’Riordan, associate editor