Aged Pages: Give Back, Support Your Favorite Store

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It’s yet again, another Wednesday. That means it’s again time for another installment of Aged Pages.

Most of the time when I go into a used bookstore I’m going to fulfill MY needs for books. What I don’t often consciously keep in mind is that it’s a business. A bookstore isn’t just a place for me to find great books and bring them back to a new loving home. It’s also a place that needs money to run and keep providing the great service to the community that it does.

There’s a simple way to help out and there’s a not so simple, or at least not so easy way. The obvious way to help out the business is to buy from them and buy from them often. This is the case for any store. I’ve had the luxury of doing business with used bookstores for years. Over that time, I’ve been given the perks of getting discounts often. But despite this, I can still make up for that small loss of sales. All I need to do is come back to the store often. Sometimes, back in college when I had nothing better to do, I’d go in multiple times a week and just grab books. Who doesn’t love that.

Not everyone can get to a bookstore often. There are more people who just don’t have the money to spend sometimes. Currently, I am one of these people. I tend to spend the little money I have in my wallet when I go to a bookstore and not have it for more “necessary” things. (It’s the curse of being a book addict.)

When you don’t have money to spend, you can always help out by spreading the word about a particular bookstore to friends, family, and random people you walk by on the street. That last one could be a little creepy, but it could also be very hilarious. It could also lead to either a new friend, or in the very least a new customer.

Now that the obvious and more simple suggestions are out of the way….it’s time to get serious. Why are we about to get serious? That’s easy…I’m about to commit a crime book addicts everywhere may hunt me down for. This suggestion won’t be for everyone to partake in. Only the strong will accomplish it.

A way to support a used bookstore and keep it afloat in the difficult times all bookstores are in right now is…to…bring in….b…o…o…ks. There I said it. Bring in your books. Many used bookstores buy back books that are in acceptable condition. You maybe get around half the price that they’d sell it back for, but it’s still some money in your pocket. At my bookstore I know you get a larger percentage back if you accept store credit instead of cash. So in the end using this method helps everyone. And if you want to be very generous, you can always donate the books and accept no money for them.

Woah….I’m still alive and allowed to keep typing up this post. Good. I was scared for a moment. Let me keep going on the topic of giving book back. There are some readers who either don’t mind reading a book and selling/giving it back to the store and there are also some readers who simply can’t fit more books in their home but LOVE to read. I personally find it extremely hard to part with a book, let alone many books. I’ve only sold books back on a few occasions. This was when I accidentally had a double of a book or my mom didn’t want some romance novels anymore (since I wouldn’t read them anyway).

In a way buying and giving  back is similar to having a library system. Only this one isn’t exactly “free” like a library. On the bright side, you’re directly funding this pseudo-library and not  tax dollars.

Well, that was my rant about supporting a used bookstore. But remember libraries are also great places to get books (not that I follow this advice since I hate giving books back ). Yes, that’s very PSA of me so I’ll just stop now.

Happy reading and all that. Go smell some musty pages!

Aged Pages: For The Love Of Books

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How far would you go to get more books? What would you do to feed that craving to buy just one more book, even when you banned yourself from doing so? (You know we all put up a ban, but we’ll break it the moment we smell some books a mile away.)

My answer to that question is that I’d go pretty far. Today I took a trip to my local used bookstore, Catnap Books. You know I love this store. And I love it so much that I took my bike there. I don’t have a car (or even a license) so my bike is my only real option, though a majority of the time I go there when someone else around here is heading into town. The reason taking my bike to the bookstore is “outrageous” is because it’s ten miles from my house. Still this isn’t much of a distance for most people…but for me it’s the ten miles back UPHILL that can easily kill me.

I’m not exaggerating when I say uphill. I live in a town called Summit. It’s named that for an obvious reason. My house is roughly 2300 feet in elevation. When I say I’m going to “town” I mean I’m going to Cobleskill. That nestled in the valley like most of the rest of my county. It’s easily 1000 feet lower in elevation. To put this in perspective a little: It takes me about 30 minutes to go to the bookstore from my house. It takes me roughly 1.5 hours to go back…that’s on a good day.

Today was one of the days I went to these measure to visit the bookstore. It’s been over a week since I was there and well the urge has been hitting me.

To reward myself to surviving the journey down I bought some books (of course). And since this is a little outside the realm of most Aged Pages posts I’ll keep up the theme. Here’s a little bit about what I bought.

Since I’ve discovered Robert Bloch, I’ve been on the lookout for his books. I’ve also been searching the shelves for anthologies including him. I found one such collection today. It’s A Sea of Space. It’s a sci-fi collection of stories from 1970 that has a Bloch story as well as Bradbury and..well that’s the only other author of know of, but I’m also not well versed in sci-fi yet. I hope to fix that.

From the Bloch best of collection I talked about in the Authors We Love post about him, I found Lester Del Rey (who wrote the intro for that book). There was one book by him in the store (Siege Perilous) and I grabbed it. It’s some sci-fi story, but I didn’t look much into what it’s about. I’m not too picky when there’s a selection of ONE book by an author, haha. I’m not shallow. Also when he has a publishing house (well a branch under a larger publisher) you kind of need to read something by him. Just to know what got him the job.

Thirdly, I found a copy of The Twilight Zone. I haven’t seen too many episodes of the show, but I figured a book from the iconic television series could be entertaining. To be honest I don’t know if it was a show or literature first, or may be both around the same time, but I’m looking forward to reading it in book form. Especially when the subtitle is “Thrilling tales from the supernatural especially written for young people.” See it’s a YA collection before YA was a thing…very hipster

MUMMY STORIES!!!!! That’s the title of this next find. I love that I found this. I’ve been having the thought in my mind that I keep forgetting to ask to the masses. “Where are the MUMMY stories?!?!?!” There are shit-loads of vampires, werewolves, witches, and even angels. While I haven’t really seen any Frankenstein monsters running around (except for Dean Koontz’s great series) (also, if you know of any, please let me know. I could use some.) I have seen less mummies show up in today’s writing. They are classic monsters and I feel that there needs to be more of them. This is a collection of stories from newer authors as well as Sir Conan Doyle and Edgar Allan Poe. It’s from 1990, so it doesn’t answer my question of where are all the mummies But what it does do, is give me some stories to get through while the search continues…and there’s a Robert Bloch story in there (didn’t know that until I just read through the authors).

I’ll skim over this book quickly. I bought a copy of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. Why? I don’t really know, but why not. Maybe it won’t be girly like the title could suggest. It is written by a man, so that makes it that much more intriguing. Same thing with the pink coffee mug on the cover, haha.

Lastly, really, it’s the last book I bought today. After this you may all go about your day. I found a book when I was checking out called Dirt Cheap. All I know about this is that I have a strong memory of meeting the author (kind of ) a few years ago at my first college. For a sociology class we were required to go to a lecture from (who I think) was the author Lyn Miller-Lachmann. Yes, I just confirmed this. Sorry for the randomness. I’m writing this as I’m searching an old pocket sized notebook from that year. It was Dr. Miller who I listened to at the lecture. It was about the book as well as the real life environmental concerns of a New York town (I think it was NY, I could be wrong). Well basically I saw the title on the cover and the memory of the lecture popped up and I bought the book. Why not. I saw the author, listened to her talk, and the least I can do is spend two bucks on her book….lol

Ok so that’s the end of what turned out to be a long and very random rant about what I bought. I hope the main point that I started talking about came through. I don’t feel like going through and editing more of that in here. I’m lazy and tired from riding around 20 miles on the bike today. I’m going to go sit down with a book now.

Remember to ask yourself…how far would you go to get some books? Would you fight a horde of zombies to get to a bookstore? (I’ll leave it at that. On the ride, I thought about discussing the possibility of various apocalyptic scenarios and how I’d get my book fix…but I got sidetracked as always.)

Aged Pages: Using Your Senses With Used Books

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I knew it would show up on my blog eventually, but I wasn’t sure just when it’d happen. The great debate is finally here: Ebooks vs. print books. Though, before you close out this page thinking it’ll be just another rant about technology advancing for the better or worst, please bear with me.

Because this is an Aged Pages post, there will be less of a comparison between the two formats…and there will also be less of a focus on ebooks in general. What you will be reading is the praise for the pages which have been allowed to age over time; the pages that have been read by many pairs of eyes, many of which have never stared at a computer screen. These are the pages that can be found in a friendly neighborhood Spid….used bookstore.

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My collection of books consists of a wide variety of books. These books are available to me in a variety of formats as well. I have at my disposal over 2,000 books. I don’t know the exact number though. All I know is that I have just under 1500 print books and over 600 ebooks. There are some that overlap and others I only have in one format of the other.

To get it out in the open, I used to be opposed to ebooks. Now I love them. But to make it clear, I will never do away with print books. I’m not on one side or the other of the “great debate,” and I’m not on the fence. I’m sitting down on the lovely field of grass next to the library that accepts both formats for books.

With that statement made, here is why I, despite not having a preference, am in permanent love with used books.

When I walk into a used bookstore one of the first things I notice is the smell. Of course I notice the books first, but that’s just a visual thing. When browsing a store there are more senses to use other than sight. Smell is a key factor to enjoying the experience. When books aged, the pages start to decay, collect dust, even grow mold. There are many reasons for there to be a smell. I don’t know how many times I will pick up a book and just smell it without looking at the words on the page or the title on the spine. Even a nosefull of dust can inspire a purchase.

Along with these smells DOES come a visual reaction as well. The older the book the more likely that the pages will be yellowed, or at least tinted brown, depending on their age. This leaves them more brittle at times and careful reading is required. I respect those books for surviving the years of turning over and over in someone else’s hands and not tearing (hopefully). Sometimes I prefer a yellowed, dulled page to that of a bright white and crisp page of a newer books.

I don’t have anything to add about the sense of sound for a used book. I mean I could pull something out of my ass for that sense…but I’ll spare you all from reading that. I do have the sense of touch to…touch upon. Older pages have a rougher texture. This is due to aging a lot of times. But there are also books from farther back that were already like this when they were newer. The paper quality over time have improved to become smoother. The quality now also limits page decay (maybe, don’t quote me on that. It’s just something I’ve noticed with books of recent decades.)

The rougher and more fragile pages give a certain feel that can’t be duplicated by an ebook. (Hey look he threw ebooks back into this.) I know the look of paper is duplicated. I’m sure it wouldn’t be too hard to throw a scratch and sniff sticker on an ereader that smells like a book too. What can’t (in my imagination) be copied is the feel of the page. More debates have focused on the weight of a book compared to ereader. Who cares. If I’ve reading a book or ebook, neither the device of book is that heavy. Go lift some weights people. Even a hardcover of war and peace can be lifted easily enough

As I said, I enjoy reading BOTH the print and ebook formats. There are reasons I enjoy both of them. Either way, as long as there is a used bookstore to walk into, a used book to smell and feel in my hands, I’ll go there and buy a book or ten. I feel the reasons stated here add to the experience of reading and should never be forgotten.

(You’ll notice I didn’t mention the sense of taste in this post. That’s just because licking a dusty book might not be very healthy….or tasty….or sanitary. If you’d like to, be my guest. Just know that it could also damage the book haha.)

(I also didn’t mention the sixth sense. That’s obvious. Books don’t die. You can’t see dead books.)

Aged Pages: Through the Eyes of a Convert, Guest Post By Jackie Vazquez

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Aged Pages: Through the Eyes of a Convert

For as long as I can remember, books have been a part of my life. I started young, with the classic children’s book “Goodnight Moon” being read to me every night. From there, my love of books grew. I learned to read at a very early age (at one point, my parents thought I was a genius) and went through books like they were going out of style. At around the age of six or seven, my aunt bestowed unto me her cherished collection of L.M. Montgomery’s “Anne of Green Gables” books. I quickly fell in love with Anne Shirley,Montgomery’s spunky protagonist, and delighted in following the goings-on in her life throughout the series.

Yet I always wondered where these books, filled as they were with their bright characters and beautiful worlds, came from. Everything in my tiny collection was a gift, but if I wanted to expand my library, I had to find the source. I can’t remember for the life of me the first time I entered a bookstore, but I was hooked from then on. I would beg my mother to take me to the mall, and while most girls my age were making a beeline for Claire’s or Hot Topic, I would run straight to Waldenbooks. I sat on the floor and read as my mother ran her errands, and would be fully engrossed in whatever book I had picked up by the time she came back. As I got older, I must sheepishly admit that my taste changed and I spent a majority of my time and money in the manga (Japanese graphic novel) section. Yet Waldenbooks was always my first stop at the mall, right up until the very day it closed. Once I grew a little bit older and had my own mode of transportation, I would hop in my car and drive to the Borders a few towns over. When they opened a Barnes & Noble at the mall, you could find me curled up in a chair in the corner of the store, happily reading whatever I could get my hands on. I would gladly spend my hard earned money at these big-name, corporate bookstores if it meant I could get back into the worlds an author wanted to share with me.

I went on in this manner for a number of years, well into my early adulthood, blissfully unaware that there were alternative routes to the book world. Whether this was a product of my environment or my upbringing, I’ve yet to determine. I’m sure used bookstores exist on Long Island, I’m just not sure of where to find them.

My outlook on the world of books (not to mention my outlook on life) was changed forever the moment my path intertwined with that of the handsome, debonair pirate/cowboy/poet/man known as Robert Zimmermann. All sappy girlfriend feelings aside, Rob is a genuinely passionate man, and his love for the literary world is limitless. You don’t have to look very far to know this is true, just read through his blog and see how the love shines through.

The first time Rob and I visited his local used bookstore together was a magical experience. It took mere seconds for my way of thinking to shift. This haven, this treasure trove, was unlike anything I’d ever seen, and in its hometown quaintness, infinitely more beautiful than anything a corporate store could ever hope to offer me. The floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, filled to the point of bursting with more books than I could ever hope to read in a lifetime, brought an enormous grin to my face. The quiet and welcoming atmosphere made me feel at home immediately. And while having a $20 in your pocket won’t get you very far at a corporate store, Catnap will make anyone feel like a millionaire with their amazingly low prices (the $1 paperbacks are my weaknesses, as are the trade paperback shelves). This is not to knock corporate bookstores; they have thoroughly legitimate reasons for the prices they charge. And while it’s true that some of the books at a used bookstore are not always in pristine condition, I’ve always had a mild fear of ruining a brand new book. This doesn’t mean that I won’t buy new books, or that aged pages should be treated with any less care than their newer counterparts, it may just mean that I have very strange neuroses. If anything, the wear and tear that used books may sometimes have shows what rich histories they’ve accumulated. And while some people of my former mentality may turn their noses up at a secondhand book, I for one embrace them in all their pre-owned glory. Sometimes, you can even find bits of their previous history tucked away in the pages. For example, on my most recent visit to Catnap, I found a copy of Nikos Kazantzakis’ “Zorba the Greek,” and when I picked it up off of the shelf, an old bus ticket was peeking out of the top, acting as a bookmark.

I don’t need bright lights, lattes, or plush furniture, all I need is a way to gain access to books. I’m not quite against corporate bookstores or the amenities they provide; I’ll still visit them from time to time. But used bookstores have shown me another way into the literary world, and I’ll happily sit in a corner, either on a stool or the floor, and read to my heart’s content.

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About The Guest:

Jackie Vazquez is my girlfriend. She doesn’t really have all those “cool” links to hand out like past guests. But she’s really cool. She’s also busy working and going to grad school to be a school psychologist. That’s why I wrote up this bio myself. I don’t want to rant and rave about her too much since you might like her more than me, if I were to keep talking

Aged Pages: Politics & Prose

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Today marks a new era in Aged Pages (brief) history. Not only will today be the first guest post of the series, but it’s also the day we’ll expand our horizons. Until now, I wanted the focus of this series to celebrate everything great about used bookstores. Why the hell not, am I right? Well, that’s going to change slightly…but for the better. I am willing to feature independent booksellers as well.

The reason: They can be great places for books as well. They may not have the smell or feel to their books like a 100 year old shelve of books could…but there is character there. Each of these stores will be just as unique as any used bookstore I’ve come across.

Think about it, we love books. Let’s support all the people who want to provide us with them.

On that note, let me introduce a brilliant author who is no stranger to A Life Among The Pages. Let’s have a big round of applause…I mean fingers tapping the keyboard…for the one, the only S.M. Boyce!

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Politics and Prose

Live in Washington D.C.? Maybe you’re visiting soon? Then I have a great bookstore for you—Politics and Prose.

Address: 5015 Connecticut Avenue Northwest  Washington, DC 20008
Phone: (202) 364-1919

P&P is a two-level, independent bookstore with live events in the back of the top level and a delicious café on the bottom floor. The café can get a little loud, but I still love it.

A friend of mine suggested this place for a meet up, and I’m happy she did. We spent most of our time in the café, which has some of the most delicious green tea (seriously, what do they add? It’s amazing) and some equally munchable hot sandwiches. They even have vegan options. That didn’t matter to me personally—I love me some meat—but I think it’s cool that you have a wide range of hand-assembled food for any time of the day. Not to mention a fresh cake sitting in a display on the counter. Yum.

Just beyond the café is a string of bookshelves filled with cartoons and kids’ books, but most of the shop is up a flight of stairs. There were only best sellers and traditionally published books as far as I could tell, but I couldn’t stay too long so I didn’t look that hard. Hopefully this independent store also stocks independent books. I’ll have to talk to a manager next time I go to see how they feel about it. I’ll keep you posted.

Politics & Prose hosts near-daily events, most of which are authors speaking or doing book signings. You can check out their full calendar here.

There are only two downsides to P&P: D.C. driving and parking. If you can walk, do. But come on, it’s D.C.—driving and parking suck here. The homes surrounding Politics & Prose are beautiful, though, which makes the stop-and-go effect less painful. There are usually spots along the backstreets, too, if you can’t get into the parking lot out back.

Parking Tip: turn into the CVS parking lot and hang a left before you get to the next street over. That’s the parking lot. I got lost the first time I went. Poltiics & Prose shares a parking lot with a strip mall, so parking in the lot can be a beast, especially in the evening.

So if you’re ever in D.C., give this shop a go. Try a biscotti and some iced green tea if you want something light. Pretty much everything on their menu is delicious, so you can’t really go wrong, and the people are incredibly friendly.

This post can also be found on Boyce’s blog

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I’m S. M. Boyce -an author, editor, book blogger, and smart ass.

 
I’m a bit of sarcastic twit, but my friends seem to like me anyway. I write fantasy and paranormal fiction, and I’m currently working on my Grimoire Trilogy. Go ahead and click the link. I’ll wait til you get back.
 
I update this blog a few times each week so that you have something to wake you up in the morning (phht, who uses coffee?). I also have a B.A. in Creative Writing, which naturally qualifies me to serve you french fries.
 
If you want to see the full about me page, complete with the all-too-cool video, head to my website.

For more on S.M. Boyce please check out the following links:

• Author Site
• Blog
• Twitter
• Facebook
• The Grimoire Trilogy

Book one of the Grimoire Trilogy, Lichgates, can be purchased at the following stores:

Amazon US | Amazon UK | B&N | Createspace