Out of Control Randomness

If I don’t let this insanity out it will truly drive me mad!

I am aware that I am hypocrite and if someone wants to make a button, I will pin it to my shirt and wear it proudly. Granted there are many things in my life that make me a hypocrite, I have chosen to share my thoughts on books and bookstores.

First, I would like to reveal the hypocritical aspect, just to get it out of the way. I own a Kindle, eBook reader, I love it. I have hundreds of books on it. It is like having my whole library with me everywhere I go. I love using it and honestly I don’t miss the crates of books in the basement that were on the verge of forming their own gravitational shadow.

Okay, I understand in this competing economy stores are being forced to become one-stop, everything to everyone shopping destinations. Somehow, though, I am offended by the local mega-chain bookstores (you figure out the two guys I am talking about) dedicating valuable shelf space to toys, boardgames, candy and dime-store junk. It started with the coffee shops, but hey that sort-of made sense, right? What goes better with the latest self-indulgent pulp fiction novel than a 5 dollar cup of coffee made with an important machine?

When I was a lad, one of my favorite memories was going to this public house on New Year’s Eve. In the area set aside for patrons waiting for a table were three ceiling high bookshelves lined with paperbacks. As a side note, I discovered Douglas Adams and the perfect bowl of black eyed peas that night. So my brain could allow for the combining of a “little restaurant” with a big bookstore.

Then came music. I see the business sense. Books and music tend to vie for the same consumer dollar. Having one store with both mediums makes sense, after all the “bookseller” doesn’t care which dollar pays his salary as long as he gets his check every other Friday. Sure, I can make that allowance; however, a bookseller, a true bookseller you know the type? The person that stands at home in rows of books and can help a customer find not only the book they had randomly heard about and forgot the title and author to, but can find 4 other titles that the customer will love. Customers walking into a bookstore deserve to be helped by that kind of person. As is the habit in those mega-stores booksellers are told to sell books for one hour, make over priced coffee the next and now they need to sell music. The way I see it one of two things will happen. The store will have a hard time hiring those miraculous souls that know books, coffee and music like the back of the hands or the store will hire anyone with a pulse and allow that aspect of the experience to suffer. I think we know which way things have gone.

I see the natural progression that leads to DVDs. Bookstores are now one stop entertainment hubs! I suppose I can even make exceptions for some of the toys, after all you need to keep the children happy right? Remember children can manipulate parents into buying all kinds of things, so there is all kinds of business sense there!

I walked into a bookstore last week. I wanted to find a new book to read. I felt the need to be in an actual bookstore. I didn’t recognize the place. I thought I had entered a convince store. More than half of the store was dedicated to things other than books. My favorite sections had been reduced by rows and rows, I stood confused and lost. It was like visiting a your hometown after a few decades. I recognized a few of the streets but it was too different to consider the place home.

I little piece of me died.

Like I said before, I know I am a hypocrite. I know that I caused this.

On Snow

Snow. It is a seemingly innocent 4 letter word describing the crystalline formation of super cooled molecules of water. Each crystalline form, or flake, is largely unique, though popular culture likes to say that each flake is completely unique, whether or not that is true is irrelevant to my discussion.

What I find interesting is how people see snow. For example the Inuit language of the Eskimos is said to have many different words to describe snow, I would say that this hints at ones perception of thing influencing how a thing is defined.

I have recently seen differing and conflicting perceptions of snow illustrated within my own home. As context I am referring to this past weekend where through a combination of cold air and large amounts of water close to 2 feet of snow was dropped on my home. The dynamics of society reacted quickly when the local meteorologist declared that this weather event was on the verge of transpiring, people flocked to hardware stores to purchase shovels and sacks of ice melt, they also crowded the aisles of the local grocery stores stocking up on milk, bread and eggs. I have to admit that my family was also swept along in this pre-snow fall ritual.

Now we come to the interesting part. My son upon hearing about the snow became excited because he was going to go play in the pure and unspoiled aftermath, visions of snow balls, snowmen and snow angels dominated his mind. My wife on the other hand saw herself sitting on the couch looking out the window watching the snow falling from the dark sky into the eerie silence that seems to accompany night time snow storms. She was absorbed in the beauty and peacefulness. My daughter being only two just ran around the house saying “Snow, Snow, Snow” and looking out the windows.

I had a different view of the impending accumulation. A shiver ran down my spine as I felt the cold damp of socks that would grow wet as I stood in the knee high piles of snow, a steady ache in my lower back would grow more prominent seemingly aware that soon I would be hunched over armed with a shovel moving and clearing collections of the crystalline molecules of frozen water. To me snow means work. Two feet of snow equates to about 2 hours of physical labor.

Now something to keep in mind; I was born in Texas and spent my foundation years there only relocating to the North East when I was on the verge of adulthood. Even after 20 years snow is still foreign to me, I really don’t perceive the loveliness or the joy that my family does. I see work, thankless, unpleasant work.

It’s going to be a long winter.