Bookstore Nostalgia

Ok, giving this blog thing a try.  It has taken me long enough to get here.  These are some random thoughts that have been in my head for quite a while.

I miss small bookstores.

From my teens until my early twenties, I had the following choices in my home town:

• Lauriat's
• B. Dalton (eventually replaced by a Waldenbooks)
• Borders
• Caldor (at least 2 or 3 full book cases of science fiction and fantasy)
• At least 3 used book stores (the only one which wasn't an independent store was Annie's Book Stop, which closed a few years back).

I used to be able to visit all of these in a weekend afternoon and be able to find something unique at each one.  Sure, there were plenty of books in common across all of them, but I could always find a good handful at each store that weren't at any of the others.

What is available today in the same town:

• Barnes & Noble - a very big store, but I find them lacking in some of the basics, especially in the science fiction and fantasy department.
• Target & WalMart (I guess you could call these modern equivalents of Caldor) - they carry some, but not much.

These days, even a giant like Barnes & Noble can't carry everything.  For that, you really need to rely on Amazon.  It is great that they carry so much, and you can glimpse inside the book and read the first few pages.  But, sometimes that isn't enough.

I like looking through the shelves of books.

I like seeing them all next to each other, being able to see all the covers.

I like to be able to pick the books up and flip through them, and read the backs, and compare the stories before making a choice of what I'm going to buy.

You can't really browse like that online - you kind of need to know what you want, or you can trust their recommendations.  But, it's not exactly the same as physically being there.  Bookstores also make it very easy to see new releases in hardcover, trade paperback, and mass market paperback forms.  If it wasn't for book stores, I'm sure I would have missed out on republications of many books that had been out of print for decades.  For example, Philip Jose Farmer's Wold Newton series of books (Time's Last Gift, Hadon of Ancient Opar, The Other Log of Phileas Fogg, and the Secrets of the Nine trilogy) - I would not have come across these as easily online.

Used book stores are also a diminishing breed, but they are a treasure trove of out of print books!  I frequently find books that have been out of print for decades, and they are dirt cheap (try walking out of Barnes & Noble with 6 novels and paying less than $10 total).  One of my favorite spots is Annie's Book Stop in Laconia, New Hampshire.  For years, I have walked out of there with at least 5 books per-visit that I have been seeking for years, and getting them for $1.50 each.  I will admit, as the years progress it becomes more and more difficult - many of the books they have in stock I have already read or have no interest in - but there is almost always a diamond in the rough.

Of course, I could always use Powell's (www.powells.com) to find these items, and I have in the past for very specific items (for example, to finish off my Doc Savage collection of Bantam reprints, many of which are extremely hard to come by).  But, you have to know exactly what you are looking for.  Plus, Powell's is like Amazon - you can't browse effectively, and you have to pay shipping.  At a physical store, I can see everything and just happen across something interesting that I didn't even remember I was looking for (I came across many old books by Jack Chalker in this way - his books have become extremely rare after his passing).

I kind of have the same feeling about video stores.  It used to be nice to just walk into Blockbuster (or any of several other chain or independent stores too numerous to name) to just see what was available and rent it.  Sure, I've used Netflix, Redbox, and Amazon Instant video, but it just isn't the same.  The selection at Redbox is pretty small.  Netflix has a huge offering, but browsing just isn't the same.  Amazon Instant Video has a large offering as well, but I find the search ability clunky, limited, and very slow.  Also, when you need to rewind, you can't see the picture so you really can't tell how far back you have gone.  I've also had the video just stop occasionally, which kind of detracts from the viewing experience.  Not to mention the cost - older films are expensive just to rent from Amazon (by expensive, I mean it costs more than a DVD from Blockbuster used to be).  But, there is the positive side that you don't have the hassle of leaving your house to pickup or return the movie, especially during a snowstorm or torrential downpour.

I've recently found the local library to be a nice alternative to these other services.  Everything is on DVD, you can rent it for a week, and it only costs a dollar.  Of course, the waiting lists can be kind of long for a certain show with dragons which is known for killing off major characters on a regular basis.  But, you can't have everything.

There are definitely benefits to living in the technological age that we do, but I do fondly remember a simpler time.  I guess, like everything these days, books and movies are both more accessible and less accessible at the same time.  Regardless of the purchasing options, my love for books and movies will continue for the rest of my life.

Update:  May, 2016

I have recently come to miss the large number of book stores even more recently.  Entire shelves or entire bookcases are devoted to a particular author or series (George R. R. Martin's Game of Thrones series dominates an entire bookcase on its own, filled with hardcover, trade paperback, and mass market paperback editions; the Tolkien's Lord of the Rings once took up almost as much space, and still takes up about two full shelves to this day, and the last movie came out over 12 years ago, and the last Hobbit movie was two years ago - these volumes don't appear to be selling like hotcakes).  Entire shelves are devoted to some series that I've never heard of, and the number of volumes never seems to diminish, while books by well known authors, that appear to sell out when they are in stock, are becoming harder and harder to find.