Welcome to The Cantina Bar and Grill: Off-topic chat served up here

[oldBPLstackden…]

Hello, Brad, Chomp, Paul and Everybody! ---

My wife prefers that term: "Collector"  ( as opposed to that "other term" [ with its negative connotations ] ) also.....

Upon my last visit to one of these "Library Free Bins" [ which I have talked about before ], I came away with only one book - and it looks like a bit of a "find" to me ( a real gem, you might say ) --

An "ACE" harback edition - an anthology of short stories and possibly novelettes, entitled:

"World's Best Science Fiction - 1971"

I have to confess again, the number of actual Science-Fiction books that I have actually read I could count on my fingers, and yet still ( probably on account of long years of mere "browsing" over many volumes  in book-stores and libraries - admiring cover art or perhaps also reading the "blurbs" describing the various contents of these various books ) most of the names of the authors of these stories ( in this anthology )

seem rather familiar to me ( sort of "instantly recognizable" ) --

[ Sturgeon - Niven - Asimov ( of course, EVERYONE has heard of him ) - Silverberg - Simak - Goulart ] ---

A Very Fine Afternoon and Evening to Everybody! ---

[oldBPLstackden…]

Just a few more odds & ends on the subject at hand...

Chomp  --

In my bachelor days, I  had a much more restrictive attitude towards the filling of my bookshelf -

my "collection"  grew very, very slowly, ( in an eclectic, serendipitous manner ) over the years -

a couple of books that had been given to me,  the rest I had bought  at the Used-Book-Stores,  and at the

library, [  although I still had a couple of brand-new paperbacks that I had aquired  when I had been  at my very first real job, being then a cashier at a small Tobacco/Magazine Stand  and New Paperbacks Shop in the middle of what  was ( at one time ) a  bustling "Urban Shopping Mall"  ]  ---

All  the books I owned then, I had either read them thoroughly, [ or had at least tried to! ] -

with only  one or two of my books  being ones  that I meant to get around to reading someday -

Of course - some of these books were not exactly "heavy-duty reading material" -  like my "POGO"

compendiums,  for instance ---

Actually, early on, my little collection took a heavy  blow, when I  felt desperate for money, gathered up the ones that I felt could fetch the most money  ( I knew the UBS could be very, very picky when selecting from what people brought in to sell for quick cash - they wouldn't just take anything and everything ) -

and left my apartment with my small stack of treasures,  which I managed to sell for a nomimal sum -

(  generally,  one got paid one-quarter of the original price for each book ) ---

I really can't remember if, afterwards, I was able to return and recover some of my treasures ( by buying them back ) or not, but I know I did begin to slowly add to my small collection  again after all that ---

One book that got added eventually, I stumbled across fortuitiosly  one evening in the "discard/freebox" in front of another  UBS - a very old copy ( yellowed pages and  otherwise all worn-out and weathered  )

of "A  Child's  History Of England" [ by Charles Dickens ]

[Bradinator1]

All right. I'm in the process of stacking up some books to go to the used book place for trade, and NOT just the ones I didn't like. I feel like Dorothy saying goodbye to the Scarecrow...."I'll miss you most of all...." I hope the bookstore doesn't mind the tear stains on 'em. Do I get a little chip like the AA folks get? Whoever brought up this subject and me feel guilty about it needs a good swift kick!

Brad

[oldBPLstackden…]

---

Bradinator wrote:

All right. I'm in the process of stacking up some books to go to the used book place for trade, and NOT just the ones I didn't like. I feel like Dorothy saying goodbye to the Scarecrow...."I'll miss you most of all...." I hope the bookstore doesn't mind the tear stains on 'em. Do I get a little chip like the AA folks get? Whoever brought up this subject and me feel guilty about it needs a good swift kick!

Brad

---

Hello,  Brad!  ---

Your tale of woe made me want to cry on my keyboard ---

It also made me want to laugh, as it was wickedly funny! ---

My wife was annoyed with me recently, when I brought home a paperback from the library "free bin" -

which, apparently, at one time or another, belonged to some kind of "lending library" ( in some small

community in another state ) - and there was a label on it that said something like:

"Read this book and/or pass it on, so someone else can enjoy it" ---

 She didn't like these instructions, because they made her feel a little guilty about our possessing this particular book - for you see, in our  household:

"Books come in - but they don't come out!!!"

[oldBPLstackden…]

---

paulgoatallen wrote:

Ardo:

Your last few posts about your memories growing up on the Left Coast and UBS were like walking into the Twilight Zone for me.  I grew up in Central New York and back when I was a kid, there was a used bookstore in downtown Syracuse that was like a wonderland for me – I would literally spend entire days there. It had two stories and a basement and had a huge selection of magazines to go a long with their used book offerings, which were impressive to say the least.

Also, strangely enough, I knew a guy who started his own business delivering books – new and used – to people around the area. It was called Books on the Run and I think he drove a van too! 

Paul 

---

Hello, Paul, and, thanks for the memories! ---

Your story reminded me of one more reminiscence I'd like to contribute, although I never actually spent much time in that "Old Great-Granddaddy of a UBS", "Holmes Books",[ that is, as I was growing up ]

 my wife and I did start visiting there several times during its "waning days" period, and especially, when they had their "Big-Blowout, Going-Out-Of-Business, Clearance Sale" [ just before the very end ] ---

My first memories of this place was from when my mother and I used to go into Oakland and spend the day at Lake Merritt - sometimes, on the way back downtown, we might stop outside Holme's Books,

which was housed in a rather large, old building [ which originally could easily have been some of  Department  Store or something like that, considering the large glass window-display-cases that stretched from the front doors to the sidewalk ] - in those spaces, Holme's placed bins-on-wheels, filled with all the

ten-cent used paperbacks...We would stand there and browse over these, but I can't remember going inside the store on those occaisons ---

But, the times I went there with my wife, years later, sure made a big impression on me...

The whole inside of the store felt old and slightly musty, dusty -

The main floor actually had a lot of new books [ remainders, whatnot ] but way at the back of the shop there was a creaky staircase that led to the landing [ & then, I think, a smaller set of stairs might have led up into another "stacks-like" alcove ] - then, there was also the rickety landing/deck that ran around the circumfrence of the store, sort of like a partial  extra storey ---

Next door to the main shop, there was a smaller, afiliated shop that sold old magazines, and perhaps some "rare finds" as well ---

On the last day of the "Great Clearing-Out Sale", we also found out there was an almost dungeon-like

dark basement below the main shop, where, among other items, they kept all the old, old "Nat Geos" -

dating back to at least the 1910's ---

[Chomp]

---

Bradinator wrote:

---

Chomp wrote:

Brad,

I think you are correct -- SF/Fantasy readers do tend to hang onto their books. Actually, several years ago I had a used bookstore owner tell me that.

However, let's use the term "collector" rather than "hoarder," which is an actual mental disease/condition/disturbance. We don't want to go there...

Carol

---

My wife and I watch a LOT of Animal Planet and they always have animal hoarders on "Animal Cops" and I have an image of the nice mental health workers coming the old age Brad house and having to walk through the little aisles of books piled everywhere and begging me to give up a few of them for my own good.

Brad

---

Brad,

I got a good laugh out of this image.

However, animal hoarders? That's just scary, and kind of gross...

Carol

[Chomp]

---

Bradinator wrote:

All right. I'm in the process of stacking up some books to go to the used book place for trade, and NOT just the ones I didn't like. I feel like Dorothy saying goodbye to the Scarecrow...."I'll miss you most of all...." I hope the bookstore doesn't mind the tear stains on 'em. Do I get a little chip like the AA folks get? Whoever brought up this subject and me feel guilty about it needs a good swift kick!

Brad

---

I sympathize with your pain, Brad.

Carol

[Chomp]

Ardo,

Perhaps your penchant for collecting books now is related to having had to part with your treasures at that earlier time.

Hey, there are worse things to collect than books, huh?

Carol

[VTfan]

I too have quite a number of books, some in storage in another state.  When I fill a bookshelf I put the book on it's back and stack them on top of each other.  I then have the books two deep in the prefab bookcases.  I normally buy paperback because I can fit more books in.  I am currently living in a small space and have many books packed in boxes.  Those are usually the hardbound.  The books fit about perfectly cases I have, but some of the new pb's are longer and will not fit my pattern! Grrr....!  I have even had second thoughts about buying these taller books.  I guess any one with a box or two of ACE shorties shouldn't complain.  Any one else notice the taller books?

[paulgoatallen]

Ardo:

I can't believe you mentioned World's Best Science Fiction - 1971! These are the very collections that got me interested in SF when I was a kid. Another fantastic annual collection back in the day was Lester del Rey's Best SF Stories of the Year.

Today, there are so many annual SF collections it's almost comical. The only one I read religiously is Gardner Dozois' Year's Best Science Fiction. 

Paul 

[oldBPLstackden…]

Hello, Chomp! ---

Well, actually, it really was my wife who was always the real all time champion book collector, it took many years of being "under her influence" before I caught that same "book collecting mania" that she had before me. -

[  and, up until that point, I was really more just a "spectator" in all this - and I still maintained my own small, "basic" collection, with just a few small additions, now and again ]

NOW, my wife, on the other hand, feels like she can pinpoint just about the moment her book collecting mania began - something to do with her mother [ at one time, many years before now ] saying something like: "We have  far too many books around the house"---

[ after which they may have gathered up some books and given them away to the Goodwill,

but  I'm not positive about that little  detail ]

[oldBPLstackden…]

Hello, Paul! ---

Vis-a-vis "World's Best Science Fiction  -  1971" ---

I  don't know about  you,  but I  sense there might be some mysterious,  cosmic  power at work behind the scenes, here  -  who knows what unseen hand left that particular volume off at the library free  bin for me to stumble across? ---

[oldBPLstackden…]

Post-Script to the "Holmes'  Books  Story"  ---

Singularly appropriate, on account of the  19th  anniversary  of the  1989  Loma Prieta  Earthquake  just having passed ---

When  I was describing  how old the Oakland,  California,  "Holmes'  Book  Store"  building was, and how the floorboards  were creaky, and the stairway was creaky, and  the  landing  was rickety -

I wasn't exaggerating by much ( if at all  ) ---

One of the main reasons Holmes had to shut down was on account of whatever damage had occurred during "The Big One" - and because the store owners felt like they could not afford to pay for the

Seismic  Retrofitting  necessary to make the  building safe  for occupation  by  customers and employees,

in the event of future  seismic  activity  ----

[paulgoatallen]

---

oldBPLstackdenizen wrote:

Hello, Paul! ---

Vis-a-vis "World's Best Science Fiction  -  1971" ---

I  don't know about  you,  but I  sense there might be some mysterious,  cosmic  power at work behind the scenes, here  -  who knows what unseen hand left that particular volume off at the library free  bin for me to stumble across? ---

---

Ardo – and everyone else:

Seriously, if you're a fan of SF, please do yourself a favor and whenever possible – in a used bookstore, at a garage sale, or in a library free bin – seek out these old "Year's Best" anthologies from the 70s.  They are all pure literary gold...

If I were going to be exiled on a desert island and could bring only a few books with me, it'd definitely be one of these anths – and maybe a "how-to" guide on building rafts.

Paul 

[Bradinator1]

---

Chomp wrote:

---

Bradinator wrote:

All right. I'm in the process of stacking up some books to go to the used book place for trade, and NOT just the ones I didn't like. I feel like Dorothy saying goodbye to the Scarecrow...."I'll miss you most of all...." I hope the bookstore doesn't mind the tear stains on 'em. Do I get a little chip like the AA folks get? Whoever brought up this subject and me feel guilty about it needs a good swift kick!

Brad

---

I sympathize with your pain, Brad.

Carol

---

Saturday was D-day at the used book store. The bright spot was finding a copy of "Lies of Locke Lamora" which everone here said was great, and an old MIcheal Moorcock that I've never read before although I wanted to since it has the "Fireclown" character in it. Sacrificed about 20+ books and the only duplicates they couldn't use were the George R.R. Martin "Songs of Fire and Ice" ones. Kind of like the Circle of Life from the Lion King I guess *sigh*.

Carol (and all),

Glad you were amused by my posts, I like to think I'm funny, but sometimes my wife disagrees as to how funny I really am

Brad

[Nelsmom]

A little bit of a change of subject but still related to Used Bookstores.  I just exchanged a few books, took seven books in and brought home two.  The people working at my local used bookstore says they are having a bit of a hard time knowing where to shelve some books because they don't know weather to shelve them.  They don't know where to put Paranormal books.  Weather to shelve them in Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy, or start a whole new section just for Paranormal books no matter if it is Romance, Dark Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, or Mystery.  I couldn't help them because I think that the new bookstores are having the same trouble because Publishers can't seem to make up there mind about where to put them.  How would you solve the dilemma if you had to? 

Toni

[oldBPLstackden…]

Hello, Nelsmom! ---

Your last post not only relates to the subject of book stores, but also  gets right back into the middle of a discussion/debate that was going on before at that other thread, "Sci-Fi or Fantasy, Why The Confusion?" 

If  it were up to me, I would make room for an entirely section - one labelled  something like:

"Paranormal Fiction  - (  Includes some Mysteries, Romance, Sci-Fi/Fantasy,  Dark Fantasy, 

 Urban Fantasy & Etc. )"  ----

Of course,  all the material  included in the paranthesis  could  be left off, for simplicity's  sake. ---

Otherwise,  the "Paranormals" could just get mixed in with all those other genres, and the  readers who

"Dig  'Paranormal'  the Mostest" could search them out for themselves.  ---

[Nelsmom]

I think that it would be easier if the Publisher were not changing the classification of some authors books.  For example Linnea Sinclair was Science Fiction/Fantasy now she is put in romance.  Laurell K. Hamilton was Fantasy now is shelved Romance and Charlaine Harris was considered Sci-Fi/Fantasy and Mystery but is now being marketed and shelved in Romance.  Why can't they just leave well enough alone.  I like the old covers.  But no they had to put sexier covers on the books to match the new shelving.  But enough of my soap box because they aren't listening to me.

Toni

[Nadine]

---

Nelsmom wrote:

I think that it would be easier if the Publisher were not changing the classification of some authors books. For example Linnea Sinclair was Science Fiction/Fantasy now she is put in romance. Laurell K. Hamilton was Fantasy now is shelved Romance and Charlaine Harris was considered Sci-Fi/Fantasy and Mystery but is now being marketed and shelved in Romance. Why can't they just leave well enough alone. I like the old covers. But no they had to put sexier covers on the books to match the new shelving. But enough of my soap box because they aren't listening to me.

Toni

---

It seems like it has more to do with making more sales rather than mis-classification. Take a book in one area and sell it. When sales die down there, market to a new area with a new appropriate cover. I'm sure they slant the book description a bit as well. Next they will be changing the title (and they have done that when there is a movie tie-in with a new title -- like Bladerunner). I believe the classification is designated by the publisher and libraries and book stores usually follow how they classify it but not always. Sometimes the classification is actually printed on the book on the spine or near the bar code. Maybe the book and writer people would know more about this.

From your examples above, Toni, "Romance" must be the hot market now.

[Nelsmom]

Not with the authors that I have mentioned because I have read the blurbs from the old covers which I have and the new covers and it is exactly the same even the authors have mentioned that only the cover art has changed with the classification.  The material the author wrote is exactly the same.  I think that you are right about sales but with the authors that I know sales are still strong and check out at the library are still strong.  So I am thinking that they are just wanting to take part in the new readers trend with books that they already have.  But that is just my opion.

Toni