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Keep It Simple: Books: My

July 18, 2001

reality escape

By Michael Jones

This is not a column about another of my remodeling projects. This is not about keeping it simple, the title of this column. It is about my addiction to reading and the acquisition of books to feed my habit. It is not a pretty sight.

I have this thing about books; especially the reading of them. Magazines and newspapers will do in a pinch, but books are my preferred choice of escape from reality. Some people seek to escape the realities of life through drugs, chocolate, sports, or even the awful reality-based television programing craze which is the current media flavor of the month trying to pass as entertainment.

It's the carefully arranged assemblage of letters formed into words, words forged into sentences, sentences built into paragraphs, paragraphs constructed into chapters, and chapters fabricated into books, which can make an hour spent waitng in the doctor's office seem like pure bliss; as long as I have with me any one the half-dozen books I'm currently reading.

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At the moment I'm wading my way through "The Lying Stones of Marrakech" by Stephan Jay Gould, a collection of essays on early scientific inquiry. "Think" is a book of philosophy for the layman philosopher in us all; a no-brainer contemporary novel about spelling bees; and a book titled "365 Zen," which features daily pearls of wisdom to be doled out one day at a time. Then there's the early journals of Henry David Thoreau and a collection of early poems by William Carlos Williams.

Waiting their turn are novels by Don DeLillo and Peter Ackeroyd, two recent acquisitions, found in an unlikely, rarely open thrift-shop in Alba. A collection of nature essays by Edward Hogland and a laid back mystery by Walter Mosley, also await my non-discriminating eye. Both were purchased from a used-book store in Houghton during a recent visit to see my son who attends Michigan Tech.

Besides providing me with countless hours of joy reading this virtual tonnage of books throughout my life, I have also developed a second habit; that of scouring every used book store, flea market, remaindered and bargain section of any bookstore which will let me in their doors. I'm always on the lookout for the ultimate bargain or find - buy one get one free, any book for a buck; or the ultimate longshot - any out-of-print book of poetry by Richard Brautigan.

My favorite part of any visit to a new town or city is to seek out the seamy underbelly of the retail district, carefully avoiding the malls and the chic downtown areas, instead, making tracks to the shabby used book stores, hopeful they will hold overflowing shelves of new used books to mine and sift through like a gold prospector searching for the motherlode.

Whereas others on vacation come home with T-shirts for a souvenir, I come back loaded down with books, both new and used, to serve as my reminder of where I've been.

I have to admit I think I'm getting a little better about this reading thing and hoarding books. I don't read while driving, or eating Thanksgiving dinner with my family. I've started giving my son extended temporary loans of books, i.e keep them as long as you want; which for me is like going cold turkey on parting with a book.

Yeah, I think I might be doing OK. now. If I can just do something about these thousands of records, tapes and CDs I've got stacked everywhere.

- Michael Jones is a staff writer at the Herald Times, and can be reached at: PO Box 598, Gaylord, MI 49734.

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