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When I was in middle- and high school, I read ravenously. Science Fiction and Fantasy, mostly, but some Horror, as well. Since I lived in a small town that had only a public library1 and nowhere to buy books, I ended up in Tuscaloosa at the WaldenBooks (I think; it's been a long time).
They had shelf after shelf after glorious, beautiful shelf of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. At the time, they were shelved in different sections of the store because readers liked what they liked and didn't want to have to bother with all that boring other stuff. :)
I took a notebook with me and a pen. I'd start at the A's and work my way down to the Z's, picking up each book that looked the least bit interesting and reading the blurb on the back cover.
If it still sounded interesting in the slightest, I'd write down the title and the author in my notebook. At my birthday and at Christmas, this list got distributed among anyone giving me gifts and I'd get—no joke—20 or 30 books. Which would be read and shelved by the time the next gift-giving holiday came along.
This is how I discovered "new"(-to-me) authors like Piers Anthony, Anne McCaffrey, F. M. Busby, Stephen King, John Varley, Poul Anderson...the list goes on and on. I didn't care who wrote it, only that it sounded like a good book. I also developed my love for thick, meaty books at this time. If it took up 2 inches of shelf space, it was almost automatically a "good book." (Melanie Rawn, this means you.)
Once I could afford my own books, my consumption of them slowed a bit, and I quit making this long lists, but I'd still browse the shelves and buy 3 or 4 at a time, always on the lookout for "new" authors (Pat Frank, Octavia Butler, Michael Flynn...), but also automatically picking up books by authors I knew and trusted (McCaffrey, Anthony, Anderson, King, Greeno, Radford, Kerr, Kurtz...).
There was a great book store in Tuscaloosa called A Novel Approach that was located in Bama Mall right near the theater. They were a small store, but they had a fiercely loyal customer base. They knew what their customers liked to read, and they made sure to get those books. After they found out I liked, say, C. S. Friedman, they made sure that they ordered all of her books as soon as they were available. And I bought them all. From them.
Of course, they closed when the WalDaltonBorders and Noble-A-Million stores opened in every mall and sucked away all their customers one by one.
I've never stopped buying books. I love to read, and I've expanded my tastes into realms other than just science fiction, fantasy, and horror. But I moved from reading physical books to listening to them on audio because I needed something to occupy my mind while I drove.
Flash forward a few years.
I have a writers group that meets biweekly to monthly at a Barnes and Noble in Duluth or Lawrenceville (I honestly don't know what city it's in; it's on Pleasant Hill across from the Kroger near Gwinnett Place Mall). Some of us have 'split off' from that writers group to form a little readers group. We read the same book and get together after we're all done and discuss it. Kind of with an eye on what the book can teach us about writing or storytelling or other aspects of being a writer.
Oh, and for the enjoyment of reading the books, too, of course. :)
We read Kurt Vonnegut's Sirens of Titan first, then Connie Willis's To Say Nothing of the Dog. Then we were faced with the conundrum of what to read next. One member suggested it be a book by a new author, perhaps the winner of one of the prestigious awards, such as the Campbell or Hugo or Nebula. She even provided us with a rather extensive list that she had compiled.
Looking at the list, I was impressed, but I since I knew nothing of the authors, I decided to fall back on my old habits and just go to the book store and browse to see if I could read the blurbs on the back of the books.
I went to the Barnes & Noble at The Forum in Norcross, which is where my other writing group meets every Tuesday night. (As opposed to my other, other writing group, which meets every Monday night on Second Life. :)
And was sadly disappointed. I've long lamented the dwindling of the science fiction, fantasy, and horror sections of book stores. I hated it when they merged the three, as though fans of one are automatically fans of the other two. But until last night I hadn't really thought about it too much.
If it's not part of a phenomenally best-selling series (like The Dresden Files or Twilight or Odd Thomas), it's likely not in the store. If it's not by an already well-known author, it's probably not in the store. And good luck finding all the books in a series at the same time.
Authors I have never heard of with 10 or 15 books in their series took up entire shelves. If you like Star Trek, Star Wars, Halo, or multi-author series of that sort, you're likely to find what you want.
But armed with "my" list of new, often award-winning authors...I found not a single one on the shelf.
Not.
A.
Single.
One.
Well, that's probably not true. I simply gave up in disgust after I failed to find the first 10 or so that I looked for.
And people wonder why Mom & Pop book stores close down. Hell, they can't compete with the WalDaltonBorders And Noble-A-Millions that carry only the absolute best-sellers, but also sell you high-caloric coffee drinks, music, videos, sandwiches, and other non-book items. And they have (often-)free WiFi.
I wish we could go back to a time when new authors got shelf-space next to their established peers. Where a person could browse for hours and find literally dozens of interesting books by authors they weren't familiar with in their genre of choice.
Where every new book didn't have to be the first in a series in order to get published. I could do a whole rant on that, trust me (says the man who is at this very moment writing a book that is the first in a series, as well as working on the next one and thinking about ideas for at least two more).
I feel like we've lost something that we'll never get back. It's just not the same on Amazon, where you search for Michael Flynn and get four of his books followed by books by every author, editor, or illustrator named Flynn, Flinn or Flend or with an M in their first name, ignoring genre.
You kids GET OFF MY LAWN! Consarn it....
I apologize if you see this twice. I posted it on Facebook and then realized it should actually have been put here. :)
They had shelf after shelf after glorious, beautiful shelf of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. At the time, they were shelved in different sections of the store because readers liked what they liked and didn't want to have to bother with all that boring other stuff. :)
I took a notebook with me and a pen. I'd start at the A's and work my way down to the Z's, picking up each book that looked the least bit interesting and reading the blurb on the back cover.
If it still sounded interesting in the slightest, I'd write down the title and the author in my notebook. At my birthday and at Christmas, this list got distributed among anyone giving me gifts and I'd get—no joke—20 or 30 books. Which would be read and shelved by the time the next gift-giving holiday came along.
This is how I discovered "new"(-to-me) authors like Piers Anthony, Anne McCaffrey, F. M. Busby, Stephen King, John Varley, Poul Anderson...the list goes on and on. I didn't care who wrote it, only that it sounded like a good book. I also developed my love for thick, meaty books at this time. If it took up 2 inches of shelf space, it was almost automatically a "good book." (Melanie Rawn, this means you.)
Once I could afford my own books, my consumption of them slowed a bit, and I quit making this long lists, but I'd still browse the shelves and buy 3 or 4 at a time, always on the lookout for "new" authors (Pat Frank, Octavia Butler, Michael Flynn...), but also automatically picking up books by authors I knew and trusted (McCaffrey, Anthony, Anderson, King, Greeno, Radford, Kerr, Kurtz...).
There was a great book store in Tuscaloosa called A Novel Approach that was located in Bama Mall right near the theater. They were a small store, but they had a fiercely loyal customer base. They knew what their customers liked to read, and they made sure to get those books. After they found out I liked, say, C. S. Friedman, they made sure that they ordered all of her books as soon as they were available. And I bought them all. From them.
Of course, they closed when the WalDaltonBorders and Noble-A-Million stores opened in every mall and sucked away all their customers one by one.
I've never stopped buying books. I love to read, and I've expanded my tastes into realms other than just science fiction, fantasy, and horror. But I moved from reading physical books to listening to them on audio because I needed something to occupy my mind while I drove.
Flash forward a few years.
I have a writers group that meets biweekly to monthly at a Barnes and Noble in Duluth or Lawrenceville (I honestly don't know what city it's in; it's on Pleasant Hill across from the Kroger near Gwinnett Place Mall). Some of us have 'split off' from that writers group to form a little readers group. We read the same book and get together after we're all done and discuss it. Kind of with an eye on what the book can teach us about writing or storytelling or other aspects of being a writer.
Oh, and for the enjoyment of reading the books, too, of course. :)
We read Kurt Vonnegut's Sirens of Titan first, then Connie Willis's To Say Nothing of the Dog. Then we were faced with the conundrum of what to read next. One member suggested it be a book by a new author, perhaps the winner of one of the prestigious awards, such as the Campbell or Hugo or Nebula. She even provided us with a rather extensive list that she had compiled.
Looking at the list, I was impressed, but I since I knew nothing of the authors, I decided to fall back on my old habits and just go to the book store and browse to see if I could read the blurbs on the back of the books.
I went to the Barnes & Noble at The Forum in Norcross, which is where my other writing group meets every Tuesday night. (As opposed to my other, other writing group, which meets every Monday night on Second Life. :)
And was sadly disappointed. I've long lamented the dwindling of the science fiction, fantasy, and horror sections of book stores. I hated it when they merged the three, as though fans of one are automatically fans of the other two. But until last night I hadn't really thought about it too much.
If it's not part of a phenomenally best-selling series (like The Dresden Files or Twilight or Odd Thomas), it's likely not in the store. If it's not by an already well-known author, it's probably not in the store. And good luck finding all the books in a series at the same time.
Authors I have never heard of with 10 or 15 books in their series took up entire shelves. If you like Star Trek, Star Wars, Halo, or multi-author series of that sort, you're likely to find what you want.
But armed with "my" list of new, often award-winning authors...I found not a single one on the shelf.
Not.
A.
Single.
One.
Well, that's probably not true. I simply gave up in disgust after I failed to find the first 10 or so that I looked for.
And people wonder why Mom & Pop book stores close down. Hell, they can't compete with the WalDaltonBorders And Noble-A-Millions that carry only the absolute best-sellers, but also sell you high-caloric coffee drinks, music, videos, sandwiches, and other non-book items. And they have (often-)free WiFi.
I wish we could go back to a time when new authors got shelf-space next to their established peers. Where a person could browse for hours and find literally dozens of interesting books by authors they weren't familiar with in their genre of choice.
Where every new book didn't have to be the first in a series in order to get published. I could do a whole rant on that, trust me (says the man who is at this very moment writing a book that is the first in a series, as well as working on the next one and thinking about ideas for at least two more).
I feel like we've lost something that we'll never get back. It's just not the same on Amazon, where you search for Michael Flynn and get four of his books followed by books by every author, editor, or illustrator named Flynn, Flinn or Flend or with an M in their first name, ignoring genre.
You kids GET OFF MY LAWN! Consarn it....
- I am so not knocking public libraries. I caught the bug for books and sci-fi/fantasy/horror in general at the Eutaw Public Library. That place holds very fond memories for me.
I apologize if you see this twice. I posted it on Facebook and then realized it should actually have been put here. :)
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If you ever get to Boston! (They don't seem to have an online inventory, sadly.)
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Hey, if you haven't dug into Scalzi's work yet, do so. Old Man's War is the best SF book I've read in the last 15 years. There's some follow-ups to it that are just as good, but it's an awesome place to start.
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On a side note, I am soon to be giving all my paperbacks away, except for a select few. I have gone full e-book and love it. I can browse authors, read a few chapters, and get instant gratification when buying new books.
In the space of a medium-sized paperback, I now have the capability of holding THOUSANDS of books. I use a PC app (Calibre-ebook) to manage and convert them and can read entire series at my leisure.
Bookmarks never fall out.
The screen looks just like a printed page (e-ink display). No visible pixels and I can read it in full sunlight.
I am never at a loss for something to read.
I don't have a smudged thumb anymore, no matter hw much I read.
My device of choice is the B&N Nook. Got it mid-January and haven't picked up a dead tree version since then. Did I mention I walk into a B&N with it and it unlocks the entire catalog while I am there? I can read an e-book just like I took it off the shelf and sat down. Of course, unless I pay, it locks back up when I leave. Again, just like a real book.
Yes, I mourn the loss of the small bookseller (my favorite was Paperbacks Trade and Save in Tuscaloosa). But that train has left and won't ever come back. For me the solution lies forward, not backward.
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<drooooooool>
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