Oh, we did go to a museum --The Milwaukee Public Museum, and yes, it's totally worth the trip-- and we also attended a concert by one of the local community orchestras that my oldest's partner plays bassoon in, but we can't have a trip anywhere without visiting a bookstore.
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| Here's the proof. I sat down on a bench in the store, looked to my right, and there it was. I'd been thinking about buying this classic, and I took this serendipity as a sign. |
Some of my fondest vacation memories as a kid involved bookstores. Such as the time when we went down to Jekyll Island, Georgia (my parents rented a house for the week). I wasn't interested in hanging around the beach**, so I read the books I brought. We managed to find a small bookstore in a strip mall nearby when we made an excursion to check out the area, and I found these books:
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| Yes, I was on an Isaac Asimov kick at the time. Then again, he wrote a metric ton of books of all types, so it was kind of hard to avoid his works back in the day. |
Asimov on Physics was right up my alley because that's what I eventually majored in at university, but I'd argue that Asimov on Science Fiction fueled my interest in writing far more than any other book at that time.
To be clear, both books were compilations of articles that Isaac had written for various magazines, from his own Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine to Galaxy Science Fiction to Astounding Science Fiction/Analog Science Fiction.***
I devoured that book (from Isaac's perspective) on the history and writing of Science Fiction, and it inspired me to try my hand at writing. 'Try' being the operative word here, because if you thought some of the stuff I put here on the blog is pretty bad, my first attempts at writing articles and fiction in high school were abjectly terrible. I still don't know how I got good grades in English back then, because I occasionally come across an old piece I wrote for class and shudder.
Still, I can also see Asimov's influence on my writer's voice when I occasionally return to this and other essay compilations of his. Unlike Stephen King, whose book On Writing I used as a springboard to learn how to edit better, Asimov provided me positive reinforcement that yes, I could write and I really ought to try my hand at it. The book also taught me that short story magazines were still alive and well (okay, at least 'alive'**** these days) and were worthwhile to read. If it weren't for that, I'd never have gotten to enjoy some really good stories.
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There is something oddly comforting about visiting a bookstore, especially for the first time. Sure, with the big stores (such as Barnes and Noble) there's likely to be a bunch of people there who are not readers but are with someone who is*****, but the independent bookstores tend to be packed with readers who genuinely love books. If you ask them and given them a blank slate, they are happy to provide a pile of books to read.
That actually happened to me over a decade ago, when I went to our local bookstore and when someone there asked if I needed any assistance, I admitted that I'd fallen off the wagon as far as reading SF&F goes, and I asked what books I ought to try out. The employee was almost giddy in that he instantly provided me with six books to read and pointed out about another half dozen or more to pick up after I was finished with those. Not all of his recommendations stuck with me --the John Ringo book I only got about 30 pages in before I decided he was far too overtly political for my tastes-- but I did find subgenres I'd have never tried were it not for his encouragement.
Maybe I need to get out of my comfort zone again and try some specialist independent bookstores, such as Mystery or Romance bookstores.
*Yes, the Meme Monday was written and scheduled beforehand.
**It stunk of dead fish. And before you say "Hey, what about that endless teen boy pastime of checking out girls?" yes, I can say that I did check out girls. I just made a point of doing that when my parents weren't around, and if I'd have walked over to the beach they would have been there. All. The. Time.
***Galaxy may --may-- have had a relaunch in 2024, but I haven't seen it at a bookstore yet. IASFM is now currently known as Asimov's Science Fiction as you'll see on the website, and Astounding became Analog and is now formally known as Analog Science Fiction Science Fact. Analog and Asimov's are published by Must Read Magazines, the same imprint that also publishes Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. Where's The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, you may ask? Well, they began having printing issues, and I've only seen an issue or two since 2023. I did see this thread on Reddit indicating that a fan purchased the magazine with the attempt to save it, but I have no idea if that'll come to fruition. F&SF had a long history in print, and it was one of the last Fantasy fiction magazines out there. If I won the lottery, this would have been one of the things I would try to save from oblivion.
****Aaaand the deeper I've delved into this, the Must Read Magazines imprint also includes F&SF magazine, and the so-called fan (plus the intentionally vague 'group of investors') have been putting out contracts with 'morals clauses' and some pretty onerous ceding of rights in them. This does not bode well for the future of all five magazines, because I've this feeling that there's a private investment firm trying to squeeze every last dollar behind the magazines' intellectual property for their personal benefit. I'll keep an eye on Writer Beware articles for this going forward.
****Aaaand the deeper I've delved into this, the Must Read Magazines imprint also includes F&SF magazine, and the so-called fan (plus the intentionally vague 'group of investors') have been putting out contracts with 'morals clauses' and some pretty onerous ceding of rights in them. This does not bode well for the future of all five magazines, because I've this feeling that there's a private investment firm trying to squeeze every last dollar behind the magazines' intellectual property for their personal benefit. I'll keep an eye on Writer Beware articles for this going forward.
*****Or are buying a book for someone who is a reader.
One of the more amusing things about working in a bookstore is gettign to overhear the comments of non-reading friends or relations of readers, most of which revolve around some variation of "But what's the point???" More common by far, though, are the silent partners/friends/parents sitting in a chair gazng at their phone while whoever dragged them in there is off somewhere taking far too long to choose a book. It's the same in clothes stores, of course, except there it's always a man waiting it out whereas in a book store it could be anyone, any age, any gender.
ReplyDeleteMy dad subscribed to the "What's the point?" view as well. He was infamous for throwing things out when he believed they outlived their usefulness, and I've lost quite a few of my books as a kid to him that way.
DeleteIs it bad that before reading this post and comment, I'd never even conceived of the idea of a "non-reader"? What I mean is that obviously some people read more and some read less, but in general my perspective has always been that reading to some extent is something everyone does. Like walking, or watching television. The idea that someone might be completely baffled by the concept of reading for entertainment confounds me.
DeleteSince I was raised as a reader, I always thought the anti-reader was, well, my Dad. I didn't realize until I got to elementary school that there were people who weren't interested in reading. For all the people who love to talk about how superior, academically speaking, the Catholic schools are, I kind of beg to differ: a really big portion of my classmates simply did not like reading one bit, and actively tried to get out of it as much as they could. (One kid I knew did an oral book report in 8th Grade on Excalibur. At first I thought he meant T.H. White's The Once and Future King, but he actually meant the 1981 movie Excalibur. He was such a good bullshit artist that he actually got a good grade over it.) This persisted up through high school, and I lost track of them in college. I mean, if you didn't like to read in college, you were kind of out of luck given all of the homework you had to do, whether your major was Communications or Phys Ed or Engineering.
DeleteOh wow, that brings back good times reading. Azimov, Frank Herbert, and William Gibson ALL THE TIME. Sigh, those were the days. Now I'm embarrassed to say I'm on my iPad playing games more than reading. SHAME on me!
ReplyDeleteAncient
I'm as guilty of that as the next person, so I can't really talk. The one thing that is certain, however, is that I've watched less and less television over the years. It used to be that sports was the main reason why I'd watch television, but given the shenanigans and chaos in college athletics caused by the NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) era that we're in, I've found my disgust over the millions of dollars being funneled to college football and basketball teams to be a big damper over enjoying the sporting events.
DeleteIt's been a very long time since I've read any Ray Bradbury or Frank Herbert. Courtesy of the new Dune films, my kids have picked up the first Dune book and they've really enjoyed it. I did give them the caveat that it was written in the 60s, so portrayals of stereotypes in SF and F back then weren't exactly the greatest.
I love book stores, used book stores especially. I used to live close enough to New Orleans that I and my friends would drive there just to hang out some days and evenings. While I certainly did enjoy drinking way too much and bumbling around the French Quarter, what I always most looked forward to most was digging around in a handful of really nice used book stores that were down there.
ReplyDeleteOddly enough I can't remember anything specific that I ever bought in one, I just remember the feel and smell of the places and being so excited to see what I would find. Of course now I live a solid 1.5 day drive away, so I am not bopping over just for giggles any more.
There's a bookstore up in Columbus in the German Village portion of the city (for reference, that's south of downtown whereas Ohio State is NW of downtown) that is absolutely amazing. The Book Loft is worth a side trip if you're ever in Columbus; we try to get up there at least once a year.
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