New Books and More Overthinking

The last few years I’ve been reading a lot of science fiction. Actually, that’s all I’ve been reading. It’s a long story, but boils down to “I like science fiction.”

I’ve done most of this reading on my Kindle. The Kindle has made it very easy to find a lot of hard-to-find old SF paperbacks. When I say easy, I mean you see it and click, and BOOM it is on the Kindle. I also like reading on the Kindle. It’s a very nice reading experience. Being able to control the font size not only makes it easier on my eyes, but I feel that I read more efficiently on the Kindle, as I don’t lose my place on the page so much.

In short – I like the Kindle. Yes, Amazon is a big evil company. Also yes, they made it a lot easier to live during the pandemic. Also yes, you gotta pick your battles in this life. For me that means I’m going to buy books on my Kindle, even though I “don’t really own them” because the reading experience is – just – superior for me.

HOWEVER. A Barnes & Noble bookstore opened in our neighborhood a couple of years ago, in what has been a semi-down-and-out shopping center. Seeing that space filled with a nice bookstore fills me with such hope for the future. A book store! Not a fucking vape shop or other dirtbaggery. BOOKS.

So as you might be able to tell, I support this. Would I love to have some cool independent book store in that space? Yes. Would Like a bookstore that is more likely to survive than an Indy. Also yes. Would you like me to stop doing this “also yes” thing? Probably Yes. I’ll stop.

This afternoon my wife and I went over to that store and I picked up three books. Actual physical books. It has been a while since I bought a new book. I’ve ordered some used paperbacks from Amazon. Stuff not available as eBooks. I also picked up about 10 very hard to find SF paperbacks at North Texas RPG Con at the start of June. But I feel compelled to support this neighborhood book store. Not Barnes & Noble (though I have nothing against them) but THIS book store. I want it to thrive and help impart some literacy to our neighborhood. Our public library is nearby. That is also great, and I of course love the library, being a librarian myself. But the bookstore can certainly be part of the literacy ecosystem of our area. The Infrastructure of Intelligence.

I have to admit I am conflicted about the physical books. For one thing, I have sold back a hell of a lot of books to Half Price Books over the years. I did that after years of carrying boxes of books around with us every time we moved. Now, however, we have been in our house for almost 20 years. I don’t want the house to just be full of books again, but there are worse things to fill your house with.

I have, for a long time now, thought it was kinda dumb to keep big collections of stuff around the house. Collections can get out of hand. Also, when you die, the truth is no one wants all your shit. I didn’t want all the stuff in my parents house.  At the library we get massive numbers of book donations every week, and I’d say 50% are from the collections of recently deceased people. My shit will be no different. Hell, we don’t even have kids. So maybe someone will want our very nice stereo, and maybe our music, but books? No. No one will want a mountain of science fiction novels. They just won’t.

But – I don’t care.

Because now I understand that people have always loved “artifacts” (as my wife, the historian, says). When you walk into our house and see our stereo, our music collection, and the music posters on the walls, they know a lot about who we are. And when we are in our house, that environment reminds us who we are. It makes us feel good. It is a physical manifestation of the joy we feel when we listen to our music.

When I walk into the little bedroom that is my computer room/gaming room/podcasting studio, you see science fiction posters on the wall. Actually, YOU probably don’t see them, because pretty much I am the only person other than my wife who goes in there. When I am in there, it makes me feel good. Our physical environments are important.

So if I want to have a bunch of books in there then goddammit I’m going to have books. Yes, when I’ve had a bunch of books in the past it gave me a little self-satisfaction to see all those books I’d read lined up neatly on the shelves. I’ve decided that’s fine too. I’m not going to win an award by not having things in my house that make me happy to look at. I don’t want the room to become a rats nest full of junk either, but a bookshelf or two full of books isn’t going to get me featured on a reality show about hoarding.

I’m even thinking about buying nice copies of my favorite books that I’ve read on my Kindle to have on the shelf. That might be 30 or 40 favorite books. Some non-SF ones too… On the Road. Zeitoun. William Gibson’s Sprawl trilogy. Signs Preceding the End of the World. Frankenstein. In Cold Blood. Invisible Man. The list goes on.

I’m not saying I’m abandoning the Kindle, but having the actual book has come to have value for me again.