Treasure Hunt

I read a column in the Chronicle today about how the pastime of reading books is going out of style. People today seem to prefer reading electronic media like emails, text msgs, and well, blogs. There's nothing wrong with this, except electronic media tend not to cover anything in depth and it can't transport you away to another world created by the words on the page and your mind's eye. Books can.

I like to read books. During school, I don't have that much time to read for pleasure, usually only just before I go to sleep, but I still manage to read a book every two weeks or so.

Now that school's out, however, I have lot more time to read and will finish about a book per week. So, the first thing I needed to do, once school ended, was stock up.

Although I often visit both Borders and Barnes and Noble, I rarely buy books from either store. I buy most of the books I read at used book stores. In fact, browsing though a used book store is one of my favorite things to do. It's like a treasure hunt. You never know what you'll find.

I once found a great book called "Heaven is a Playground" which is about a sportwriter who went to Harlem to write a story about playground basketball. Instead of staying for a few days, he ended staying all summer, coaching a bunch of kids and following their lives through high school and beyond. Funny, sad, touching. The book was printed in 1976. Try finding that at Borders (you can get any book I mention at Amazon).


I also found a book called "You Gotta Have Wa" which is about ex American major league baseball players going to Japan to play. This is a fascinating and funny contrast between two cultures and how it effects the way the game is played. Can't find that at either of the above stores. I know. I looked.


Anyway, the weekend after school got out, I went book shopping. My favorite used bookstores are all in the East Bay, mostly in Berkeley. For me a perfect book shopping day is when I find all the books I'm looking for plus something interesting that I spot and pick up in the spur of the moment, but not all in the first store I go to. It's more fun that way.

On this trip, I visited two stores and bought 8 books (did I mention that used bookstores sell their books at half the original price?). I bought one serious novel, "Cities of the Plain" by a great writer named Cormac McCarthy,


two mysteries by a guy named C.J.Box which are set in the wilderness of Wyoming, a book on the US Air Force, a legal thriller by Scott Turow and, because of comments made by some of you, the first three "Maximum Ride" books. So far, I've read one of the Box books and the Air Force book. I started "The Angel Experiment" yesterday. I like it so far.


Anyway, if you want to try something a little different and can convince somebody to take you, I recommend a trip to a used book store. It's relaxing, it's fun and you never know what you're going to find there.