Wednesday, January 07, 2009

I like reading, but I can't come up with a title for this blog post

I watched a documentary on Hunter S. Thompson after getting a comment from the Drug Monkey that compared a post of mine to his. The documentary is called Gonzo and I highly recommend it to fans of Hunter or to fans of the movie Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

I wanted to check out a few books by Hunter. I was hopeful that the Tempe Public Library would have a copy of Thompson's seminal study of the Hell's Angels. No luck. The library is all out of Hunter S. Thompson. All of his books have been stolen. I have no idea if the library will be ordering any more soon since the last time I talked to some of my fellow ex-coworkers they mentioned that the library was getting rid of 40% of the stacks (book shelves) even though the library is going through a major remodel and they are adding additional space. I sarcastically rejoined my coworker that a "library without books was kinda weird." For some reason the employee was in favor of the plan. He cited his reason that " most of the books we have don't get checked out." That just seemed like a reason to get different books, or more copies of the books people wanted. But I guess I am the last remaining bibliophile in Tempe and the rest of the city just wants more free Internet access and coffee bars.

With the notion that I would have to purchase my copies of Thompson's works I took off to Bookman's. Bookman's is the best used bookstore in Arizona. Unfortunately Bookman's was out of Hunter S. Thompson. Apparently a patron had asked for all the books by Hunter that the store carried just a bit before I arrived.

I did find a copy of a book of poetry by my favorite author Charles Bukowski. I don't think it is a major work, but it was the first time Bookman's had a copy of a Charles Bukowski book. I was told they sell out of his stuff as soon as they they place it on the shelf. I would buy his stuff new, but I have a thing about buying new books. I know I have talked about that before on this blog, but I know how people on other blogs casually mention things on their blogs like "if you have been reading this blog ...you know that..."

The truth is even when I pay attention to a blog I forget things that are said on it, so I am betting that you do the same thing with this blog. I say all that just to tell you that I think paying retail for books is a scam and since I am broke I try only to purchase used books or I try and read a copy at the library. I only buy new whenever I know I want to keep a book to reread or to use as inspiration, or when I know I will want to use it as a reference. That excludes a lot of good books that most of you middle class people buy, because you have too much money and don't need to worry about spending 20 dollars for the latest Stephen King novel.

2 comments:

DrugMonkey, Master of Pharmacy said...

"The library is all out of Hunter S. Thompson. All of his books have been stolen."

Somehow, I think Hunter would be pleased.


His last gig was writing a sports column for espn, and as you can see, he ended his life the way he lived it, ahead of his time.

http://espn.go.com/page2/s/thompson/030722.html

Romius T. said...

thanks drug monkey. at least I have a little something from Thompson now.