Essayist
I got my 1,000th book today. I picked up James Morrow’s The Last Witchfinder at Borders. Given my current pending reading list, I probably won’t get to this book until sometime over the summer, but I’ve been a big fan of James Morrow’s previous books and I felt this was a worth book for number one thousand.
I also picked up my 1,001st book, Expanded Universe by Robert Heinlein–primarily for the short story, “Solution Unsatisfactory”.
From I. Asimov: A Memoir:
If I want to recall peace, serenity, pleasure, I think of myself on those lazy summer afternoons, with my chair tipped back against the wall, the book on my lap and the pages softly turning. There may have been at certain time in my life, higher pitches of ecstasy, vast moments of relief and triumph, but for quiet, peaceful happiness, there has never been anything to compare with it.
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
War Stories by Joe Haleman arrived today, making it the 998th 999th book in my collection. Two One more to go before I hit 1,000!
UPDATE: I discovered a book on myself my shelf last night that had not been entered into my database. This is why the numbers changed from 998 books to 999 books.
I’ve just ordered my 998th book, Joe Haldeman’s War Stories. This means that I need 2 more books to reach 1,000. One of the two books I’m already planning on ordering–it’s the one volume I’m missing in the 11-volume Story of Civilization series by Will Durant.
That means, I really only need one more book to reach 1,000 books in my collection.
I am open to recommendations for what that 1,000th book should be. I think it should be something pretty spectacular, but I’m open to pretty much anything. Anyone have thoughts or recommendations?
Why Tuesday? Why are new books and music (and DVDs) almost always released on a Tuesday? I’m sure there is an answer to this, but while I’m curious enough to ask the question, I’m just lazy enough to avoid searching for an answer. Besides, I suspect the answer is precisely what an old math teacher of mine used to say about why things were done a certain way in mathematics: by convention.
I went to browse the Dangerous Visions bookstore website today because I hadn’t looked at it in a while, and there is a message indicating that they are holding a contest to change the name of the bookstore, after 25 years of having that name. There is also a note that indicates not to make a big deal of this, that they’ve been planning it for some time. But what gives? Is nothing sacred?
I was notified by Amazon this morning that a book that I have been waiting for quite a while (The Crucible of Power: The Collected Stories of Jack Williamson, Volume Five is due to be released soon. I already have the first four volumes. Jack Williamson, for those that don’t know, is a science fiction writer. His first published story appeared in 1928 and his most recent story appeared in the January/February/March 2005 Analog. That’s right: he’s been writing for that long. He has published fiction in the 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s, 9 decades. He’s 96 years old and still writing.
I noticed that the book had a sales rank of 350,637, which I imagine is pretty far down the list. But it got me wondering about the type of books that make up the top 25 of Amazon’s book sales. So I clicked on the link to find out what they were and then did a little bit of analysis on them.
At the most basic level, the top 25 books currently sold on Amazon break down as follows:
Back when I was in college, I took a great class on media and film and one of the things that I got from that class was that film provides a social context of society at the time the film was made. In other words, you can tell a lot about society and culture of the 1950s by taking a look at, say, High Society. The same, I imageine, is true for the books that people are buying. I am making a big assumption here. The rankings are based on sales of books. It is not possible to tell whether people actually read what they buy, but let’s assume for our purposes that they do. What can we tell about people today?
More than anything else, people appear to be looking for a way to improve their lives. Ten of the top 25 sold books on Amazon are self-help books with titles like Life’s Missing Instruction Manual, Inspiration: Your Ultimate Calling, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, and so on. Clearly, there is a kind of social inadequacy that is permeating book-buyers. (I say book-buyers because one can’t say the same is true for people who don’t buy books. It may be true, but we can’t tell from what they buy.) People want to live better lives, make more money, enjoy more fulfillment, have better relationships, and in general feel inspired. What this says to me is that people who buy these books feel that their lives aren’t so great, they don’t make enough money, they don’t feel fulfilled, are disappointed with their relationships, and are rather uninspired.
Next on the list are novels. Novels have been a staple of readers for centuries. They provided an escape from reality long before radio and television existed, and in fact, for a very long time competed only with the stage as a form of story-telling. So it is not surprising that people still read novels. But what kind of novels are people reading? Of the 6 novels in the top 25 Amazon sales, 3 fall into the mystery/suspense category, and one is a vampire book. The remaining two novels are what would normally be considered mainstream literature; that is, non-genre literature. So the novels people are reading are there to allow them to escape from the mundane world–the same oppressive world in which they feel uninspired–where they can instead read about fictional characters who enjoy more fulfillment, have interesting lives, wonderful relationships, and who feel inspired.
I find this kind of ad hoc analysis interesting. It certainly does not mean that everyone who buys or reads these books fall into these categories. But these are the most sold books on Amazon, and people buy them for a reason. They fill some kind of niche.
Incidentally, the book that I am currently reading, Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 has a sales rank (in paperback) of 23,328. In fact, it’s very rare that I read a book in the “top 25” when the book is actually on the top 25. (For example, I read The Da Vinci Code long before it became a bestseller, attracted by the words “Da Vinci” and “Code”. I also read Good To Great long before it was on the Amazon top 25 sales list.
I wonder what this says about me?
Last night, before dozing off, I was scanning blogs and came across an interesting looking reading list of books. It had a domain name of something like bestmustreadbooksever.com or something like that. I made a mental note to remember it because I wanted to compare it to my own list to see how many of those books I’ve read. I just tried finding it again and couldn’t. I spent 15 minutes doing all sorts of google searches. I checked my browser history. It’s gone. Maybe I dreamed the whole thing.
I came across this book while browsing Locus Online this morning. The name of the book is called It’s Superman: A Novel by Tom DeHaven. Being a Superman fan, I couldn’t resist. The great thing about this book is that it is not any kind of media tie-in. It’s not a Smallville book or anything like that. I’ve never liked media tie-ins. It’s just some authors attempt at retelling the tale of Clark Kent’s younger days in his own way. I should be getting it Wednesday and I look forward to reading it.
Incidentally, I noticed something new on Amazon when I looked at this book. For newer books, it looks like they have a new feature, which they call “Text Stats”. Among other things, this gives the actual word count of the book, which means I can cull this information programmatically into my reading list in some cases, rather than have to calculate it manually as I have done over the last 10 years. (See text stats for It’s Superman).
On the train home this evening, I got to thinking about my favorite type of book. I’m not talking about genre: science fiction mystery; or fiction vs. non-fiction. Instead, I’m talking about book binding.
To anyone who has ever walked into a bookstore, the most blantant book types you see are hardcover books. Hardcover books are great. For anyone who likes books, a hardcover book is like the first class of book types. They have a heft to them. I love it when they have unevenly cut page edges. The are appealing to the eye. You can feel the content in your hand. Invariably, when I want to buy a book as soon as it comes out, I buy the hardcover edition. I’ll also buy the hardcover edition when it’s a book that I want to keep for a long, long time. Most hard cover books these days are printed on high, quality, acid-free paper and will not turn yellow after sitting on your bookshelf gathering sunlight and collecting dust.
There are some downsides to hardcover books, however. For one thing, they are expensive. Most hard cover books coming out these days start at very close to $30.00. The smaller the print run, the more expensive the book. As someone who like to read obsucre books now and then, that occasionally means I’ll pay in excess of $35 for a hardcover book. On the otherhand, hardcover books for “bestsellers” are usually offered at pretty good discounts, sometimes as much as 40% off. Another downside to hardcover books is their weight. They are heavy. One hardcover book adds noticiable heft to my backpack. When I carry two, it’s like lugging a ton of bricks! Finally, most hardcover books come with “dust jackets” which I find annoying and useless. They don’t actually keep the dust off the book. They interfere with reading the book and I always take them off and leave them at home when I am reading a hardcover book. However, the dust jackets curl easily in the sunlight when they are not formed around the book and become warped and out-of-shape. I’d prefer if hardcover books did away with the dust jackets entirely.
Another type of book is the paperback book. These are much smaller, much cheaper versions of books, that often are released in “mass market” form, roughly a year after the hardcover edition. Paperbacks are great because they are versatile. Toss two or three paperbacks in your backpack and you hardly notice it. Sometimes, you can even put a paperback book in your back pocket. There are some downsides, however. For one thing, if you are like me, and want to read new books as soon as they come out, paperbacks don’t fit the bill. For another thing, if you are like me and prefer keeping all of your books in the best possible condition, then paperbacks have to be “handled” much more carefully than hardcover books. Their spines can “crack” easily if you open them up too widely, and the pages yellow and tear easily.
“Trade” editions are a kind of happy medium. These are special editions of books that are halfway between hardcover and paperback books. They are larger than your normal paperbacks, and printed on better (acid-free) paper, yet they are still soft-covered. Whereas a paperback book might run you $7 and a hardcover book $30, a trade edition can usually be had for between $12-15. One drawback is that not all books are released in trade editions. Often times, trade editions are re-releases or special editions of books that have already come out in both hardcover and paperback.
So which of these is my favorite type of book? As it turns out, none of them.
My favorite type of book is a very specific type: a well-used paperback.
Well-used paperback books can usually only be found in used bookstores, garage sales, or library sales. In particular, I love well-used paperbacks from the 1960s and 1970s. I have a lot of science fiction novels that are of this type of book. In the 60s anda 70s, lots of science fiction novels were published straight to paperback without ever having a hardcover edition. These books have a well-worn look to them. They bend easily, they are pliable, the spines are worn and cracked, they pages are so yellow as to be almost orange.
And the smell!
There is nothing like the smell of a well-worn paperback book, one that’s sat nestled in among its brothers and sisters on the shevles of wonderful used bookstores, collected the dusty and sweet, musty odor that is unique to these objects. You can flip the pages and sniff, and be instantly transported into wonderful places, like the late Dangerous Visions bookstore in Sherman Oaks, CA. Or the Iliad Bookshop in North Hollywood. Well-worn paperbacks feel like they’ve been read by a million people. You can often see some of that history, a name scribbled on the inside cover, highlights or underlines in pencil or pen an various pages, an occasional comment in the margin. The book has been used again and again and again. A well-worn paperback book has always been well read. You can stuff the book in your back pocket without worrying about damaging it. It’s beyond that. A book that has lasted that long is indestructable. You toss it onto your bed before going to sleep and squeeze it into your backpack in the morning.
I don’t beleive there will ever be anything as versatile, entertaining, and mysterious as the well-worn, used paperback book. I buy them on purpose whenever I am in a used bookstore to be sure that I don’t run out.
In some respects, it makes me sad. More and more stuff is being published online and there is always the debate as to whether or not books will one day be completely replaced by electronic media.
No way!
It is a completely different mechanical experience reading something on screen than it is reading a book. There is a brightness to the screen that you don’t have in a book, that interfers with the reading process. With a book, the subtlest flick of the thumb flips to the next page. With a something on-screen, there are no “pages”. You have to scroll or click or do some other type of obnoxious motion that interfers with the process. Most of all, however, nothing will ever be as portable as the book. Even when the day comes were we are always “online” no matter where we are, we will still rely on a power source to power the devices we use to read things online. With a good, used paperback (or even a brand new hardcover book for that matter), the only power source you need is enough sunlight to read by, and enough food in your system to keep you alert.
The book that I’m currently reading, Robert A. Heinlein’s, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress happens to be one of these well-worn used paperbacks. In fact, this particular edition was printed in 1968. It’s 38 years old. There is a much newer trade paper edition that I considered buying instead of reading this edition. But you know what? I can’t quite say why, but I am certain that the book would have been less enjoyable if I read it in a trade paper edition, then it is reading it in this beat-up, 38-year old paperback edition. Go figure.
RSS - Posts