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Discovering downtown

When we hatched the idea of a "young people's blog" about a million years ago, this was what I had in mind. Reporter Marcia Nelesen wrote a story for Sunday's paper about Milwaukee Street Used Books, 218 W. Milwaukee St., Janesville.

This blog will hold us accountable to find new things, I thought.

We're not looking for a certain event or business, but we do need to break out of our comfort zones, in my opinion.

For example, I'd driven by Milwaukee Street Used Books 874,000 times on the way home, and always wanted to stop. One icy, slushy Saturday in January, I did.

Will, who owns the store with his wife, Kathy, welcomed me and asked if I'd been in before. At my "no," he explained how the stacks were organized, and pointed out the coffee and snacks.

I had some hot cider in a Dixie cup, putzed around the stacks and eventually got into a books recommendation battle with Will. I found a Steinbeck I'd never read, and the selection of youth lit (for which I have a weakness) was really broad and high quality.

When I got home with a $2 copy of "Catcher in the Rye", I said, "I didn't know Janesville had anything that cool."

Of course I didn't, because I'd never stopped.

So, I hope as this blog grows, we keep making ourselves try new things in Janesville and in other places.

I'm confident we will find many pleasant surprises.