I can't be the only person on this planet who goes nearly insane when I forget to bring a book with me when I go somewhere I KNOW I'm going to need to wait for awhile. You'd think that after 30 something years (and that's all I'm going to admit to) I'd learn. You'd think that with 13,000 books at my disposal I'd always remember to take one. But nope. I often find myself with downtime and nothing but my own thoughts to keep me occupied. Sometimes if I'm fortunate I have a piece of paper with me so I can make lists, which I rarely heed, or I can write inane blogs like this one, long hand. I also practice the long standing art of people watching too. Usually when I do that I am mentally writing scenes and plot twists for books I know I'm going to write someday.
Does anyone else care to share how they keep sane when waiting without a book to keep them occupied?
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Electronic Reading Devices
Today we were discussing the Kindle; the new electronic book device being sold and promoted by Amazon.com. I was given an article written by Stephen King in, I believe, the Amtrak passenger magazine where he talks about his testing out of the new product. He seems to like it but makes some very good points about it, particularly in comparison to other media such as audio books. He says, "I've argued all my life that the story means more than the delivery systems involved (and that includes the writer)." He goes on to talk about how he doesn't, "understand the prejudice some people seem to feel about recorded books...", as I don't. And he feels that the quality of the audio book is only as good or bad as the words written by the author and views the Kindle in this regard as well. Because the book he was reading on the Kindle was so engrossing he forgot that he was reading using an electronic device once the words pulled him into the story. He also feels that the advent of items like the Kindle does not sound the death knell for the physical book because, "There is a permanence to books that underlines the importance of the ideas and the stories we find inside them..."
I tend to agree with Mr. King, and that's saying something since I'm not a fan of his work by any stretch of the imagination. However, there is a reason that electronic books have not really made huge inroads into the book market, that is the physical aspect. I have bet my career on this by opening my bricks and mortar shop and fashioning it to be a sensory experience for readers. There is just something about actually feeling the pages and turning them. And when we read in bed at night, like many of us do, we just don't seem ready to take an electronic reading device with us. That would be like going to bed with R2D2.
I really can't say I know a heck of a lot about Amazon's Kindle. I do give it a full thumbs up for reducing the price of the just published hardcover best sellers to something most everyone can afford, even if the price of the device is a little high right now. However, there is something that cannot be done with a Kindle that can be done with a book -- you can't lend your Kindle books to your friends like you can your physical books. How many times have you been talking with friends about the book you're reading and offer to lend it, or give it, when you're done? I know I do. But if I'm reading the book on the Kindle how can I pass it along without passing the whole Kindle along? Hmmm. Perhaps there is a way that I don't know of but I'm more of a mind to think that there isn't because it would force more people to purchase the Kindle and purchase the download of the book, thereby boosting sales numbers and revenue. Nice try Amazon and publishers, but I think my little used book shop is safe for the moment. I think I'll still be getting books traded in with the initials of all the previous readers in the group lining the front pages for years to come. And given that hardcover books may be going the way of the dinosaurs in the next few years (a subject to be taken on in a future post) it will be interesting to see what happens to the electronic devices and the download market.
What are your thoughts on the issue? Are you ready to take an electronic book to bed with you?
I tend to agree with Mr. King, and that's saying something since I'm not a fan of his work by any stretch of the imagination. However, there is a reason that electronic books have not really made huge inroads into the book market, that is the physical aspect. I have bet my career on this by opening my bricks and mortar shop and fashioning it to be a sensory experience for readers. There is just something about actually feeling the pages and turning them. And when we read in bed at night, like many of us do, we just don't seem ready to take an electronic reading device with us. That would be like going to bed with R2D2.
I really can't say I know a heck of a lot about Amazon's Kindle. I do give it a full thumbs up for reducing the price of the just published hardcover best sellers to something most everyone can afford, even if the price of the device is a little high right now. However, there is something that cannot be done with a Kindle that can be done with a book -- you can't lend your Kindle books to your friends like you can your physical books. How many times have you been talking with friends about the book you're reading and offer to lend it, or give it, when you're done? I know I do. But if I'm reading the book on the Kindle how can I pass it along without passing the whole Kindle along? Hmmm. Perhaps there is a way that I don't know of but I'm more of a mind to think that there isn't because it would force more people to purchase the Kindle and purchase the download of the book, thereby boosting sales numbers and revenue. Nice try Amazon and publishers, but I think my little used book shop is safe for the moment. I think I'll still be getting books traded in with the initials of all the previous readers in the group lining the front pages for years to come. And given that hardcover books may be going the way of the dinosaurs in the next few years (a subject to be taken on in a future post) it will be interesting to see what happens to the electronic devices and the download market.
What are your thoughts on the issue? Are you ready to take an electronic book to bed with you?
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Owning A Used Bookstore
About once a week I get people who know I own a used bookstore tell me that it is their greatest dream to own one too. For those people I offer the following, which I tell you from experience is not an exaggeration:
A man owned a small bookstore, with living quarters upstairs and a couple of rooms in the rear, in Mississippi.
The Mississippi State Wage & Hour Department claimed he was not paying proper wages to his help and sent an agent out to interview him.
"I need a list of your employees and how much you pay them," demanded the agent.
"Well," replied the store owner, "there's my stock clerk who's been with me for 3 years. I pay him $200 a week plus free room and board. The Internet listing clerk has been here for 18 months, and I pay her $350 per week plus free room and board. Then there's the half-wit who works about 18 hours every day and does about 90% of all the work around here. He makes about $10 per week, pays his own room and board, and I buy him a bottle of bourbon every Saturday night. He also sleeps with my wife occasionally."
"That's the guy I want to talk to...the half-wit," said the agent.
"That would be me," replied the bookseller.
A man owned a small bookstore, with living quarters upstairs and a couple of rooms in the rear, in Mississippi.
The Mississippi State Wage & Hour Department claimed he was not paying proper wages to his help and sent an agent out to interview him.
"I need a list of your employees and how much you pay them," demanded the agent.
"Well," replied the store owner, "there's my stock clerk who's been with me for 3 years. I pay him $200 a week plus free room and board. The Internet listing clerk has been here for 18 months, and I pay her $350 per week plus free room and board. Then there's the half-wit who works about 18 hours every day and does about 90% of all the work around here. He makes about $10 per week, pays his own room and board, and I buy him a bottle of bourbon every Saturday night. He also sleeps with my wife occasionally."
"That's the guy I want to talk to...the half-wit," said the agent.
"That would be me," replied the bookseller.
Monday, January 21, 2008
Book Clubs & The Used Book Store
I'm finding that I have a love hate relationship with the people who come into the shop clutching their book club lists and looking only for the specific books on the list. I love that people are reading and thinking about and discussing books. I love that they come to Tea & Tattered Pages looking for the books on their lists. However, what I don't love so much, is that the books are usually newly published or on the lists of so many book clubs that, even if I have the titles, I run out of any copies I may have had very quickly due to the club members who shop early and then I don't get more in until the books have been read and discussed.
What really dismays me though is that the people who come in looking for the books on their list don't browse for any other books. Sadly they seem to be reading just that one book and not discovering other books by the same authors on their lists or other books which are similar in style or subject matter to the books on their lists. They seem reluctant to round out their reading experience by straying from the path the leader of their club, or the NY Times bestsellers list, or friends or families are leading them down. And that is just sad.
I know that everyone is busy and doesn't always have time to read a lot of books. And I also know that not every book is worth reading. But who made the rule that one MUST read many, many books in a short period of time or that one MUST finish an unenjoyable book? Maybe I believed this at one time but when I was a teenager my Mom told me that if I didn't like a book there was no reason to finish it. How liberating. I could move on to something I do like. And since it took me the better part of 10 years, or more, to read The Source I certainly feel no need to tear through books just to say I've read a huge number of them. Which brings me to the subject of the customers who brag to me how many books they read a week, but I'll save that for another day...
Tell me, what book has it taken you the longest to read? Why did you stick with it?
What really dismays me though is that the people who come in looking for the books on their list don't browse for any other books. Sadly they seem to be reading just that one book and not discovering other books by the same authors on their lists or other books which are similar in style or subject matter to the books on their lists. They seem reluctant to round out their reading experience by straying from the path the leader of their club, or the NY Times bestsellers list, or friends or families are leading them down. And that is just sad.
I know that everyone is busy and doesn't always have time to read a lot of books. And I also know that not every book is worth reading. But who made the rule that one MUST read many, many books in a short period of time or that one MUST finish an unenjoyable book? Maybe I believed this at one time but when I was a teenager my Mom told me that if I didn't like a book there was no reason to finish it. How liberating. I could move on to something I do like. And since it took me the better part of 10 years, or more, to read The Source I certainly feel no need to tear through books just to say I've read a huge number of them. Which brings me to the subject of the customers who brag to me how many books they read a week, but I'll save that for another day...
Tell me, what book has it taken you the longest to read? Why did you stick with it?
Saturday, January 19, 2008
The Myth of Bookstore Owners
I think most people believe that used bookstore owners are highbrow readers who read and re-read classics only. In my case nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, truth be told, my favorite genre is historical romance. I often say that what history I know I learned in historical romances and not in school.
This is not to say I never had the intention of reading classic works of literature. While in college I promised myself that after graduation I would read all those great works of literature that I didn’t have time to read before because I was so busy reading for school. That promise lasted until about halfway through Wuthering Heights; then I went right back to reading 20th century fiction and historical romances with a lot of chick lit, a few mysteries and some action/adventure novels thrown in for good measure. I did feel a bit guilty about this because I was sure that I was missing out on something really good since it was so universally agreed that the works of Dante and Hawthorne and Jane Austen and the Brontës are some of the best writing in history. Then one day I stumbled across an article or some sort of item in a newspaper or magazine which explained that while these books may be great literature they were written for people of a different time -- people who had fewer distractions in their leisure time than we do today. The people in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, and before, didn’t have the distraction of TV or video games or movies or even radio; and they also enjoyed reading out loud to each other, consequently much of the literature was written to be read aloud in groups. So there it was. I was vindicated and released from any obligation to make myself a more well-read person than I already was.
Maybe someday I’ll go back and pick up the classics again. But who is to say that some of the work of today’s most popular writers won’t be considered classics in the future?
This is not to say I never had the intention of reading classic works of literature. While in college I promised myself that after graduation I would read all those great works of literature that I didn’t have time to read before because I was so busy reading for school. That promise lasted until about halfway through Wuthering Heights; then I went right back to reading 20th century fiction and historical romances with a lot of chick lit, a few mysteries and some action/adventure novels thrown in for good measure. I did feel a bit guilty about this because I was sure that I was missing out on something really good since it was so universally agreed that the works of Dante and Hawthorne and Jane Austen and the Brontës are some of the best writing in history. Then one day I stumbled across an article or some sort of item in a newspaper or magazine which explained that while these books may be great literature they were written for people of a different time -- people who had fewer distractions in their leisure time than we do today. The people in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, and before, didn’t have the distraction of TV or video games or movies or even radio; and they also enjoyed reading out loud to each other, consequently much of the literature was written to be read aloud in groups. So there it was. I was vindicated and released from any obligation to make myself a more well-read person than I already was.
Maybe someday I’ll go back and pick up the classics again. But who is to say that some of the work of today’s most popular writers won’t be considered classics in the future?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)