These are a Few of My Favorite Things

As of this moment, I own 1085 books and yes, I’ve read most of them. I know the exact number because I have an app that keeps track for me. I got the app because over the years, I’d find myself in a bookstore with a book in my hand, wondering if I’d read it already. If only I had a list, I used to think, and now, thanks to my app, I do.

I love books and have been a reader for most of my life (with the exception of my four years in high school where I managed to read as little as possible). Fortunately I got back into it just after high school when a former teacher (Carol Virostek – the best teacher I ever had) recommended I read some Kurt Vonnegut so I did. Ultimately I roared through all of Vonnegut and have been reading ever since.

Right now I’m reading “Nobody’s Fool” by Richard Russo.  A relatively older book, it was published in 1993, and the following year was made into a movie starring Paul Newman. I had good seats to both 1993 and 1994 and yet, I’d never heard of the book, the author, or the movie. Paul Newman, on the other hand, is vaguely familiar.

Nevertheless I’m reading this book and so far, I like it a lot. But this story is not about the book I’m reading but rather, how I came across it in the first place. I found it in a bookstore. Not an online store but an actual as they say, brick and mortar building. It’s a building that gets harder and harder to find every day and that’s a shame.

Bookstores have always been a sanctuary for me. Back in the 80’s (I had good seats to the 80’s as well) when I first moved to Oakland, California, I spent a good amount of time on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley.  Back then two of my favorite bookstores were within a block or so of each other. Moe’s Books was (and remarkably still is) a famous used bookstore that boasted four glorious floors of books and it was heaven for me. Just down the street Cody’s Books (sadly now gone), offered all new books for sale. I could easily spend hours going back and forth between the two, and I did.

Even Piedmont Avenue in Oakland, where I worked, had some great bookstores. Whenever I got sick of my job at a deli, I’d threaten to go work in one of the bookstores instead. Somehow I never quite made it though and now it looks like bookstore jobs will be increasingly hard to find.

I’m partly to blame of course. When Amazon first began, I ordered books from them, a lot of them. Now, like so many others, I still order books, but also everything from socks to cooking equipment (most recently a pizza peel). As a result, I spend less and less time in that brick and mortar building. Consequently there are less and less of those stores to spend time in.

Fortunately, there are still a few around and recently when I needed a new journal, that’s where I went. I like to hold the actual book I plan to write in and get the feel of it before I buy it. That’s just me. I found a journal I liked right away which left plenty of time to poke around the store. I looked through the new fiction to see if any of my favorite authors had anything out. Nothing appealed to me there, so I set upon the tables covered with piles and piles of books, which is where I found “Nobody’s Fool” and decided to give it a shot. I also picked up an interesting book about the making of the classic film, “The Princess Bride.”

I’ve already read and enjoyed “The Princess Bride” book and I’m nearly finished with “Nobody’s Fool.” The point is I wouldn’t have found either of those books had I not been physically in the store. Yes Amazon is inexpensive and convenient. But there is no substitute for making your way ever so slowly through a sea of books. You never know what you’ll find. A trip to the bookstore should be savored, especially now that more and more brick and mortar stores are disappearing.

This story could and probably should end there. But it doesn’t. I’ve enjoyed Mr. Russo’s writing so much, that I’m now the owner of two more of his books. In fact, they just arrived the other day, from Amazon…

As I said, I’m part of the problem. I’ll be adding it to the list of things I need to work on (tragically a very long list). If you add it to your list as well, not only will you increase your chances of finding gems you never heard of, but also that bookstore job might be around for me after all.