Book People
I spend so much time on this blog talking about the process of writing fiction. I love writing. Even when I appear to be daydreaming . . . I'm actually often thinking about writing. So it's kind of like I am working.
I "hang" with mostly writers. Writers, editors, artists . . . I always feel like other writers kind of get me. Not that I am particularly easy to understand, but at least with writers I don't ALSO have to explain why I like to comb the internet researching strychnine poisoning, or why I find people with unusual jobs--like funeral home workers--fascinating. Why I can't sleep when I am on a roll with a manuscript. Why I like to be alone most of the time. But love meeting new people.
But I forget that I am not only a writing person, I am a BOOK person.
Tonight, Baby Girl and I went to Barnes & Noble. I had a caramel macchiatto with soy milk; she had a hot chocolate. She went to HER book section (she's in 4th grade but reads on an 8th or 9th grade level, so she reads later YA, no longer middle-grade fiction, and then I peruse her choices to make sure they're not TOO racy--or don't have too much violence). I went to MY section (physics). I pulled one book after another down. Books on physics. Books on math. Books on the cosmos. Not cosmos as in vodka and pink stuff, but THE cosmos. I ended up buying THIS by THIS GUY. Other women like HIM (so do I) but I am, admittedly, a physics groupie.
I wandered from stack to stack. I went over to the comparative religion section. I checked out books by him. I looked at cool covers over in the sci-fi section. I went to the children's section. I looked at crossword puzzle books. (I am also a groupie of THIS MAN.) Are you seeing what a geek I am?
I went over to the coffee table books and looked at great photography. Then I checked out some memoirs. Baby Girl wanted three books. I whittled her down to one hardcover.
Oldest Daughter has a wardrobe Posh Spice would envy. She digs clothes shopping. I break out in hives at the thought. But send me to Barnes and Noble without Demon Baby, and I could literally spend all day. I don't have to speak to anyone. I don't have to do anything but browse.
There are all sorts of stats on how we're reading less as a nation. But I don't care. I am an unabashed book person.
So who else? And what are your trips to the bookstore like? Where do you browse? Let us peer over your shoulder at your bookstore life for a moment.
36 comments:
Hey Erica, just went to B&N last Friday. I bought THE MAYAN CODE by Barbara Hand Clow. I could live in that section. Seriously, have no clue whether it's New Age or Spirtuality now. I read tons of books along these lines. I was with my Baby Girl too, and two of my grandkids. We bought one of them book one of Spiderwick, and the other Spongebob books. So much fun!!
I'm totally a book person. A trip to Borders (that's what is closest to me) makes me lose my senses! I can barely remember what I want to look for or explore unless I take a list.
I'm sure it's only writers that go to the book stores and libraries not just reading titles, but analyzing them. "Oooh, that's a good one, what do I like about it?" "Oh I'd never have thought of one like that, what makes it so different?"
It's exhilarating and exhausting.
I think I better go tomorrow!!!
I love bookstores. I love all those books, of course, but I also love the smells, the passion those around me also feel for reading, the ideas floating on the air, the possibilities. It's rare for me to go into a bookstore without walking away with an armful of books, which is why I try to avoid them unless I'm feeling rich or have a few gift cards to burn.
I used visualization techniques during my deliveries that were suprisingly helpful. Instead of imagining the lulling waves of the ocean, I went to Barnes and Noble in my mind. Completely relaxed me.
My husband got a kick out of telling everyone where my happy place was. ;)
I'm a bookie who hangs out with bookies. When I visit a bookstore I browse EVERYTHING. Fiction, of course. Geekology, which won't surprise you. But also New Age stuff, YA, everything. In the magazine rack I look at every cover.
If I'm shopping with my bookie buddy K I'll tell him, an hour after others would have abandoned me in the store, "Well, I'm about ready. You?"
He'll say, "Are you kidding? I'm not even halfway through."
Hi Ladonna:
Hmm . . . never heard of that one. But when I woke up this morning and already had a few posts, I assumed I was in good company--book people.
:-)
Hi Amy:
For me, what's funny is how much I wander--aimlessly. Oh, a book on jazz. One on poetry. Shakespeare. Across this broad spectrum, just wandering.
E
booklady:
I have to budget myself too. I spent $120 last night. On splurge purchase--spur of the moment, not really NEEDING them, but WANTING them.
E
Heather:
Now THAT is the first time I ever heard that. LOL!
My "happy" place was the little cottage my grandparents took me to when I was a girl . . . every summer.
E
Stephen:
I have one friend like that. She will NEVER be ready to leave before I am.
And Oldest Daughter is a confirmed bookie.
E
I always come out with something.
i'm trying to read the books in my genre (MG) but I'm catching up on books from a few years ago. Just finished Time Traveler's Wife and Gone Baby Gone.
Hi Christine:
Yeah . . . it's pretty much impossible for me to not emerge with something.
And I liked both the books you mentioned. I don't read a ton of fiction, though, mostly nonfiction. I am trying to finish up American Prometheus . . . but it's so sad that I find myself . . . going SLOWLY and then picking something else just before I fall asleep.
E
When I walk in the closest Borders, I usually check out the new releases tables for both hardcovers and paperbacks, then the bestsellers and "recommended" section, then by then I have to figure out where my kids are, so I hit the kids' area and look around a bit at the YA or Middle School age books, then I'm off to mysteries and thrillers, but recently I've been also hitting the sci fi section to browse a bit, I almost always stop in the writing section to see if there's anything new or interesting, and even more lately I've been visiting the travel narrative section and the political science section.
I love browsing bookstores and libraries! I usually buy something, too, even though my TBR pile stays waist-high.
I'm going to be pretty depressed if digital media ever take over literature the way they have music and movies.
No more brick-and-mortar stores? I can't even imagine it.
Hi Mark:
Being as I write YA and now am doing a middle-grade series . . . I check out the kids' sections too.
E
Jude:
My Oldest just got the iPhone. The thing is AMAZING. She is a total digital kid. But she still loves REAL books.
:-)
E
You already know I go four - six days a week. :-) Every Tuesday on release day, I take about an hour to not only check out the new books on the front tables, but to wander through the stacks and find all the new books there.
If I haven't been to a certain bookstore in over, oh, three days, I have to do a detailed check on each section before I can sit down to write. Gosh, I just LOVE the bookstore. Which section? Let's just say I make a big sweep around the edges, then wind through the middle.
Spy:
LOL! I did think of you when I wrote this.
E
I've written one middle school age novel, still being marketed, and am working on one off-and-on that's YA, so I've been reading more in that area.
Just finished reading Scorpia by Anthony Horowitz, one of his best Alex Rider novels as far as I'm concerned, and if you haven't read Skullduggery Pleasant, I highly recommend it.
I look at all the front table books, then go up to the romance section. Since Barnes & Noble places romance in the back, I stop along the way and browse mystery and SF/fantasy. If I'm with my co-blogger, Liz Kreger, we check out the cartoon humor books on the ground floor.
I'm worse in the library -- because I don't have to pay for the books there. I can't just return books and pick up one being held for me. I have to browse.
Hi Edie:
In my bookstore, romance is at the back next to sci fi, too.
I don't read sci fi . . . but I love looking at the covers.
My oldest son is VERY into manga. So I check out that section (in the back) too.
E
I wonder if there are any writers who do not like to browse book stores? :-)
I have my route. I head to the romance first, then back to Young Adult, then Bargain, since it's right there. Then I sweep through French History and Travel, maybe even Metaphysical. Magazines and Comic Books are last, though sometimes Sci-Fi follows.
My husband never used to like book stores; he's not a reader. But I think I've taught him by osmosis the art of browsing, and now when I tell him I'm going to Borders, he enthusiastically asks to come along. ANd sometimes he even spends more time browsing than I do! Wonders never cease.
Happy Valentine's Day! HEre's hoping if you get chocolates, you get the GOOD ones. :-)
I spend every Thursday afternoon at the bookstore. I wander the aisles sipping on a caramel steamer, but rarely do i stray from the fiction section and then only for research material for some bit of fiction I am writing or planning to write.
Hi Michele:
I've infected my entire family with bookstore love.
E
Hi Travis:
I rarely buy fiction. But I could haunt the nonfiction and math and science section until closing. I started the book I bought last night . . . deep into the cosmos and the Big Bang theory. :-) THAT is going to be my exiting Valentine's Day night. Aren't you jealous? Curled up with a physics text.
E
Erica--
I think it's unfortunate our kids will never know the auditory joys of making untraceable prank calls on a rotary-dial phone; the olfactory delights of Ozium and fresh vinyl when walking into a record store; the tactile, bacteria-sharing pleasures of thumbing through a card catalogue at the library...
Ah. Those were the days.
At least we still have books. :)
Jude:
LOL! My Oldest asks all the time, "What did you people do without cellphones? How did you call someone if you were running late? What about texting?!?!?! Like . . . OMG!"
E
I wish I'd infected my family with my bookstore love. When we're out shopping and we pass one they physically hold me back to stop me from going in!!!!
Though my daughter did let me browe in the new Borders for a while the other week when we were in Wellington - she was just trying to keep me on side!!!
Erica - let's go shopping together! I've never been the same since I was researching a book and went to the Liverpool University and saw a particle accelerator!!! Now I love all things quantum even if I don't understand most of it!!!
Though, I get most of my non-fiction from the library and spend my book budget on fiction books!!
Erica, I live at the local Barnes and Nobles. Unfortunately, I spend a little too much money there and at Amazon also! By the way, I'm trying to get a copy of Do they wear high heels in heaven and Amazon only has the kindle edition? If I ask at Barnes and Nobles, can they order it for me?
Anyway, my TBR pile is immense but I can't kick the habit. I just love books.
Sara:
Well, Oldest Daughter is a late convert at 17. So perhaps there is hope.
E
Amanda:
I am SOOOOOOOOOO jealous!!!!! That is like my DREAM field trip.
E
Hi Ello:
You "should" be able to. But I wouldn't swear to it. I have a new release in November, and I don't know what stock they have on the old for that line.
E
I'm strictly forbidden to go to any bookstore un-chaperoned. Our budget cannot sustain my addiction.
But, when I am allowed to graze... I mean browse, I go to (in no particular order) sci/fi and fantasy, ya, childrens, romance, computers and technical, magazines, new releases, crafts and hobby, travel, metaphysical/new age/spiritual, poetry, classical literature, cooking, art... hell, I pretty much cruise the whole store.
But sci/fi and computers are a must on any visit no matter why I may be there.
My girls love to go to the kids section and will always try to get a stack of books out of the store, just like their daddy :) My wife has to chaperon because I am completely unable to resist.
The thing about libraries is that you have to give the books back. I love to re-read books all the time... capture the flavor of the story, enjoy certain passages, etc. TO give a book back to the library can sometimes be just painful.
For instance, I have read The Roofer at least 4 times now. Which reminds me... I need to get another of your books Erica so I can branch out a bit.
Hi Ewoh:
Wow . . . I am so flattered you've re-read my book.
:-)
And I think it's funny you need a chaperone!
I can't sleep in the middle of a manuscript either. My characters won't shut up. Entire scenes and dialogue goes through my head.
Hmmm, I'm normally a library or order it off amazon type person, but the types of books I gravitate toward:
nonfiction: Books on writing, books on philosophy, arts and crafts books, entrepreneur books, sometimes I get a wild hair for quantum physics written in a way I, as a nonscientist can absorb. (which takes some skill)
Fiction: Romance, mostly paranormals, comedic girl power type books, erotica, mysteries, fantasy, any book with a vampire in it, books in the kids section. (I still love Roald Dahl, Judy Blume, and of course JK Rowling has tons of adult fans. I can't believe Harry Potter is all over but the last two movies.)
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