Books Are Mindblastingly Entertaining!

Every so often I hear people complain about the price of a book.
I say, oh shut the f--- up. A book is a bargain.

I go to maybe 3 or 4 movies a year. When my kids were small, my husband and I did the math and found that one night at the movies cost us $100. We paid for parking or transit, babysitter fees plus treats for babysitter and kids, popcorn for us and the movie tickets.

I can’t bear to think of the movies that disappointed me. All that money down the drain.

Nowadays, you not only pay, you have to watch commercials! That is something I find extremely annoying. So the ads, the trailers and the movie itself takes about 2.5 hours, plus travel, that’s 3.5 hours. That’s more than $20 per hour’s worth of entertainment, and at least part of that experience is annoying!

A book costs anywhere from nothing (courtesy of your local library) to about $35, and there are all sorts of prices in between. I find that the average novel takes 24 to 30 hours to read. That could mean less than a buck per hour!

Movies and television are passive. You sit, you receive.
Books are active. You sit, you engage.

Some movies are memorable, but many readers find that movie-versions of books are not.

Movies and television can make you put on weight.

A good book can make you forget you were hungry. Or that lunch time has come and gone.

And sometimes that your plane has gone too.

When reading a really good book in an airport, always sit near the gate – just in case you don’t hear all the boarding calls and a gate attendant sees you sitting there, not moving except to turn the page.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles -- and Books

Remember Planes, Trains and Automobiles, a movie from about 20 years ago? It stars Steve Martin as a businessman trying to get home for the holidays (this being an American movie, the holiday is Thanksgiving). When his flight is cancelled due to bad weather, his troubles have just begun. Along comes a well-meaning but obnoxious salesman, played by John Candy, who determines to "help" his new friend get home. Imagine a thermometer that measures frustration. As Steve Martin’s frustration temperature begins to rise, so does the comedy.

If this were real life and we readers were in the situation Steve Martin finds himself in, there would be no movie-worthy comedy. Our frustration levels would remain low. Why? Simple: we’d have a good book with us to help pass the time. I’ve been glad to learn a trip is going to take longer than expected – reading time is precious and there never seems to be enough of it.

I once took a very long train ride sitting next to someone who had brought a copy of People magazine. That was it. No knitting, no laptop, no novel. She wanted to "chat," and I obliged for a time, but her small talk couldn’t compete with the book I was reading. (It was The House of Sleep by Jonathan Coe, a great novel, published, alas, by another company. This blog is meant to be honest, and therefore will honour a variety of books, not just those I've had the pleasure of guiding to the light of day.) When she got up to go to the washroom, I resumed reading and did not look up when she returned. The rest of the trip passed peacefully, but I could tell my new friend was now acutely aware of the limitations of a single copy of People. I didn’t let it bother me.

I thought she should have known better.

Let’s say we’re going somewhere, to a place far enough away to require travel on bus, train or plane. If we’re asked, "How are you getting there?" We can answer, "By book." For example, I’m taking The Shock Doctrine to Montreal. You?

In Libris Veritas

Before Christmas, or ‘the holiday season’ as it is now more inclusively called, marketing departments at publishing companies, such as the one I work for, are fond of telling us that books make great gifts. That strikes me as an obvious statement to make, but that’s only because it’s true.

I suspect that if we are readers, chances are our relatives and friends are readers too. An aunt, a dad, a best friend, a sister, a child: someone will drive us into a bookstore to get the gift we think will be appreciated on December 25 (or whenever it is we do the gift thing), whether we’ve been pushed to do so by marketing departments or not.

Wine blogger (In Vino Veritas) Alice Feiring, says this about what she looks for in a vintage:

I’m looking for the Leon Trotskys, the Philip Roths, the Chaucers and the Edith Whartons of the wine world. I want my wines to tell a good story. I want them natural and most of all, like my dear friends, I want them to speak the truth even if we argue. I’m trying to swell the ranks of those who love the differences in each vintage, who abhor homogenization, who want wines that make them smile, think, laugh, and feel sexy. For better or worse, it seems as if I am a wine cop traversing the earth, drinking and recommending wines that are honest.

Alice Feiring’s reading tastes may be a bit odd, but we probably have much in common. What she looks for in wine is what many of us look for in a book: something that has a great structure and balance, surprises us with its depth and complexity, and leaves us satisfied yet wanting more.

We are in a recession now, but we know from experience that two things tend to be recession proof: books and booze. Marketing departments at publishing houses may want to point that out.

But look at the price of hardcovers, I can hear someone say. Yes, hardcovers are the most expensive books. Yet I read in a recent Maclean’s that there is a bookstore in Montreal where corporate tycoons shop for presents for other corporate tycoons. They can and do spend $999,999 for a single book. Why would they choose to buy such a book? Because books are very special, last much longer, and make a bigger impression than a bottle of Highland Park 40-year old single malt or a Chateau Lafite Bordeaux found in Thomas Jefferson’s wine cellar. If you want to impress someone, you can’t beat spending $999,999 for a book.

A $30 hardcover doesn't seem too pricey, now, does it?

You don’t have to spend a lot, but some of us (no one I know) clearly has the dosh. Check this out if you can from a wonderful on-line used bookseller: http://www.abebooks.com/books/most-expensive-2008.shtml

For the rest of us, consider what Tory McNally of McNally Robinson Booksellers, a small but growing chain based in Winnipeg, did this past holiday season. In PW Daily, she had this to say about Christmas sales: “We made a table with books under C$20 and sign saying
‘A big screen TV never changed anyone’s life’ - It worked.”

Simple and inexpensive, yet radical. In Libris Veritas.