Bookstores

My pre-Kindle life revolved a lot more around bookstores than my post-Kindle life has. I remember going to bookstores all the time in the Army and reading, reading, reading. Heck, I read Gone with the Wind when I drove home from the Army by stopping at bookstores and picking up a copy of the book that they had and picking up where I left off. Never bought it, just read it throughout the drive at every bookstore I could find. 

I found myself at a bookstore the other day to find a book for my kiddos. My son is finally reading "chapter books" or what the rest of the world calls "novels" and he thinks he is only falling in love with reading because of this one author and this one series. Ergo, if he doesn't get this specific book in the series, the reading may stop. So off Dad goes to get that book!

I grabbed a coffee, of course, and was going to hang out for a bit, but work interfered and I had to bolt before I could get settled in. 

I miss them I've decided. I miss the quiet, the slow pace, the smell, and the quiet chimes of someone else coming in or leaving. I think bookstores took a wrong turn a while back. Instead of taking comfy chairs away, they should have added more. They should have found ways to keep more people coming and actually charged a nominal fee for coming in. 

Sure, you want to come in and hang out, no problem. You're entering at 11, we'll run a charge on your credit card for fifty dollars and refund what you don't use when you leave. It's just 2 dollars an hour. They'd get a ton of people I suspect! They'd have me at least. Hell, I'd probably go as high as 5 dollars an hour. Shoot, they should even institute premium pricey. Between this hour and this hour, the price goes up!

Now, what I find I'm doing is going to half-price bookstores more and more. When I travel, I look for the closest used bookstore to where I am and go check it out. What do I buy? Here are the rules. 

First editions and first printing only. Even if they have a book I really really want, if it's not a first edition first printing, I pass (well most of the time, there have been one or two exceptions). 

• Never buy Book Club Edition. I made this mistake once. Worthless. 
• I only buy books that I've actually read and liked. If it's not something I've enjoyed in the past, I pass. 
• I focus on the bargain bin first. A three-dollar first edition first printing? Yes, please.
• Hardbacks only (again, I've broken this once or twice)

If you are at the used bookstore and want to look for me, you'll commonly see me follow this route . . . bargain bin first, then sci-fi and fantasy, a touch of horror, then thrillers then literary fiction. Next, I go to the non-fiction area and focus primarily on military history always starting with WWII and Korean Wars and working my way toward more modern times. Next, it's to politics and biographies. Lastly, I go to the writing and reference section. Who knows? Every now and then I find a book on writing I actually want to read. 

So, that's me. If I see you, come by and say HI! Or even better, if you have a favorite used bookstore, tell me about it. I'd love to expand my reach!