As a writer, I love used bookstores. Perhaps not for the reason you think (books, books, and more books), but because it is when I am inside a used bookstore, that I find out what people really read. Nielsen BookScan compiles sales figures and is a great publishing industry resource, but the numbers are dry. In a good used bookstore, I see it live.
That is especially true for a writer like me, who leans less toward literary reads and more towards genres like sci-fi, mysteries, thrillers and humorous short stories.
I’m in Missoula, Montana this week and found a really great used bookstore: The Book Exchange. They have a wide range of books, from classics like Isaac Asimov’s robot novels through current books like Percival Everett’s James (high on my TBR list) and Rebecca Yarros’s romantasies (among my ‘guilty pleasures’).
Writers, of course, also go to libraries, frequent bookstores that sell new books, and read book reviewers. But that is like going to a museum: what you see is curated by experts. Unbelievably valuable but filtered by gatekeepers. Suggestions on what people should read, but not the skinny on what people do read.
If you are ever in Missoula, check out The Book Exchange.
#thebookexchange #amwriting #amreading #bookstores
Text copyright 2024 by Ted Macaluso
Ted Macaluso - Author 
Great thoughts on what’s being read, Ted! Could you expand on those ideas? If a book is there, is it because someone didn’t like it and didn’t want to keep it around? I keep my favorites. If a book is there, is it because it’s in a genre which the person reads so much of, they have to dump most of it to make room for more? If a book is there, is it because the owner died and it ended up in an estate sale? What do you think the mix of books is telling you? Write up another few paragraphs for us, please! Barney
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Great questions! I keep my favorites too but eventually need to make room for new books. If it is an estate sale, then the owner wanted the books but perhaps it is not the most timely indicator. What i was thinking about was the contrast in shelf space. In stores focused on new books i feel like a lot of space is devoted to general and literary fiction. In used bookstores i feel like a lot more space is devoted to sci-fi, romance, paranormal, thrillers, action, spy and mystery, etc. This may just be my reaction, but i feel like critics and reviewers think genre fiction is neither serious nor hard to write. Used bookstores renew my faith in liking and writing genre fiction.
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