So I Walked into a Bookstore . . .

. . . and I bought something new.

That's kind of how my book buying goes.

I may (actually, often) set out to buy something specific. Every time he writes a new book, off I go. Or I will read about a "hot" new physics or mathematic book (WOO! Wild woman!) and I head to the bookstore. That's how, years ago, I bought this book. Oldest Daughter and I love to wander bookstore aisles, buying new writers and classics alike. Youngest Daughter and I head off frequently. She reads on the high school level, so it's tricky to find YA high school-level reading but content-appropriate for a 10-year-old, so we have our work cut out for us. She wanders the kids' area, I wander the science.

With Amazon and Barnes and Noble online, I sometimes oder something off the 'net. But that's not my preferred method. I've started buying books for my iPod, so I browse iTunes a lot.

Which brings me to my real topic. You see, yesterday over at Amy's utterly amazing writing blog, there was a discussion of self-pubbed authors giving big publishers a "black eye" in the comments section. Now, I am utterly motivated to read HER book (and she had kindly let me read a copy when it was released, though for some reason my review didn't show up at Amazon). She's funny as heck and she has a specific platform. But I am not, I have to honestly say, motivated to read very many self-pubbed books. To be honest, I'm not even motivated to read any by this publisher. (I could have picked any of dozens, but I remembered their name.) Or any smaller ones that deal with e-books.

I wondered why. Is it I'm a snob about sloppy editing or ugly covers? (Maybe.) Have I SEEN a lot of really bad self-pubbed stuff (um, yeah, can't be a book editor without people approaching you with some really, really bad iUniverse stuff)? Yeah. That. But I had an ah-ha moment at Amy's blog.

You see, when Amy's blog visitor posted about a "black eye" and people elsewhere have had the same sort of rail against publishing ("My God, but it's like the same five guys get book deals and where does that leave the rest of us!"), I thought about it. And I guess I realized that when I walk into a bookstore, I can choose from THOUSANDS of titles. And chances are obvious that not all of them will be what I am searching for. I want to read this. And my browsing limits itself to anime (for Oldest Son and Youngest Daughter), David Sedaris (for Oldest Daughter), kids (Youngest Daughter), religion (me), and science (me again). I may wander to knitting. I always look at coffee table art books (often on sale!). I've got my shelves that I head to. But again, I COULD, if I wanted, choose from thousands. Thousands with (mostly) decent covers and production values, thousands (mostly) fairly cleanly edited. Thousands by talented people. Some of them HUGELY talented as in the idea that they put a lot of the rest of us to shame. So I am simply NOT MOTIVATED to think, there is nothing in this store for me and now I will turn to the vast array of self-pubbed titles.

Are there exceptions? Sure. Robin's book (visit the Shrink Rap blog) is one. I am sure if a pal of mine had a book out with a very small press, I would be motivated. I think SHE IS A TALENT!

But when it comes down to it, I know that we're all trying to bring our A-game and when someone gets published it represents a breakthrough for them of sorts. An intersection of their A-game and market and luck and the rest of it. And so I know when I walk in that bookstore . . . that's what I'll find for the most part. And I guess it's true when Mark Terry and others say we're competing for readers' time and their budget and all the other entertainment options out there AND we're competing with other books on the shelves. And in the end, I just haven't ever reached a point where I thought . . . "Well, my God, this is ALL just not anything I would read and now I must go in search of more obscure writers on the Internet to read." My motivation for that doesn't exist.

So that's how I feel . . . the motivation . . . not there.

But tell me how you feel? Thoughts?

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.