I'm a firm believer in the concept of e-books, and it's always grated on my nerves when people say “Well, that's not a real book.” To me, a book is the story, the writing, the creativity, not the medium through which that story is delivered.
Having said that, there still is no substitute for what a physical book can offer at times. Earlier today I found myself with a bit of unexpected time on my hands, so my wife and I decided to clean out this massive, floor-to-ceiling shelf that was overrun with books and papers and loads of photos and a couple of big basketball trophies from my coaching days, along with a load of toys at the bottom belonging to our granddaughter.
The shelf is quite an item itself from long ago days – my wife and I, along with a since-departed friend, built the shelf way back, well, gosh, it had to be within the first year or two of our marriage, which would make it 30+ years old. It's made of heavy, solid wood, and the shelves are double depth, meaning we can put two rows of books on each shelf.
We've lived in our present house for 12 years, and I'm guessing quite a few of the books on that shelf were dumped there the week we moved in, just to get them out of the way, and that's where they've remained, gradually hidden by more papers and books and assorted stuff.
We attacked the shelf, which ended up being quite the stroll down memory lane.
I came across a copy of one of my favorite novels – HARVEST HOME, by Thomas Tryon. I remember first seeing the movie adaptation of this novel right around the time I turned 15 and absolutely loving the mini-series (though I've never seen it as a rerun or VHS or on any streaming service). A few years later, on my first reporter job in the town of Appomattox, I snapped up a copy at a used book library sale and devoured the book over the next couple of days.
I found a long-lost copy of the anthology THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE: HORROR IN RURAL AMERICA, published in 2009. I doubt any of you have ever heard of that, but one of my tales, “For Want of a Ghost,” found its way into the pages. Certainly not my best effort, but one I had fun writing years ago when I was living in the tiniest of towns that inspired the story. (When I say tiny, I mean the town population jumped by a hearty 0.8 percent when my family took up residence there).
I also came across these two gems:
I got both of those books, along with a DARK SHADOWS novel I seem to have lost, when I was in second grade. I still remember how giddy I was scooping those up from the table – it was my first time at a book fair at the Mount Pleasant Elementary School Library, and we all got to pick a book to take home and keep. Because I had won a reading contest, I got to select two more. While everyone else was grabbing up SEE SPOT RUN books and racing car books, I snatched up these two, along with the DARK SHADOWS LOOK.
I still recall the look on the face of Mrs. Prilliman, our school librarian. She asked me over and over if I was sure, if I really wanted those? She opened them up to show me there were no pics, just pages of dry, gray copy.
I was certain of my choices. Even if I couldn't quite read those books then, I knew somehow, that in a few short years I'd be able to read every story. And I did, a few times over. Finding these today brought me, if only for a moment, some of that childhood excitement I felt as a kid, reading scary stories or watching scary movies.
Yet another great find was this little hardbound chapbook titled THE WORKS OF EDGAR ALLAN POE. There was only one work inside – NARRATIVE OF A. GORDON PYM – which is supposedly Poe's only full novel.
Way back in my college days, one of my best friends – Jeff Moore, from Delaware – saw this at a yard sale and snagged it for me for something like a quarter. Regrettably, I lost touch with Jeff over the years, and I really thought this book was lost as well. I don't know much about it, it had no copyright or publication date on the title page. It carries the words “The Richmond Edition In 10 Volumes,” and at the bottom is printed “New York John Hovendon 156 Fifth Avenue.”
I can say I'm the only person on Earth who has read this copy cover to cover – when I first read the work, back in my college days, many of the pages were uncut – meaning the printer had not properly separated and cut the pages on the press. It would have been physically impossible for anyone to have read this copy without first slicing the pages apart – which I did.
Finding this brought back a little of the excitement I felt upon reading this so many decades ago. Even more, it reminded me of Jeff and our friendship and all the good times we shared in college, both of us in drama classes, sharing our writing work with one another, just being college kids searching for their place in the world.
There were a few other pleasant surprises hidden in the old shelf – an anthology called PRIME EVIL with some big-time names (Stephen King, Clive Barker, Peter Straus, Ramsey Campbell, among others) and NIGHT VISIONS DEAD IMAGE, another anthology of horror. I picked up these many years ago – in the 1980s, when I was still a bit bright-eyed, the world was still new to me, and I thought I'd one day become a full-time horror writer, taking long walks while working out stories in my head, spending the rest of my time smoking a pipe, banging out tales that would thrill the world.
Unearthing these books – these physical, paper and hard cover editions – brought back a lot of memories. Mostly good, some bitter-sweet, but all part of my life.
And I have a couple of hours with a few old books to thank for that walk down memory lane.
