We Go On Holiday! We Buy Books! (I Was Not Joking When I Said This Earlier)

Wednesday is about books and writing. Today it’s Tuesday in America, where I write this. Surrounded by piles of books we’ll need to get home one day soon…

I think I predicted this, and pre-warned you, if not myself: We Go On Holiday And We Buy Books. As Prince almost said, We did not come to funk around. Till we get your books we won’t leave this town!

I am in Grass Valley, Calif. It’s a sleepy little town. The main industry is weed. They love country/folk music here. The houses host American flags out front above their porches, it’s probably 50/50 when it comes to voting Democrats or Republicans. So, as an outsider, you can see some things. I saw a man rocking a t-shirt that said ‘Make California America Again’. Basically, this state was a bit too pussy for that Joe Rogan Slow Cook Motorcycle Guy.

It’s also - I should absolutely have said at the top - a lovely little town, especially to visit. It has all you need. Including (obviously!) quality edibles aplenty. And it has one of the world’s greatest second hand bookstores - Book Town Books. I remembered it from when I was last here, 13 years ago. My book-radar detected it during a whistle stop tour of the town. I ran in and out in five minutes. And in that time I had found Wynton Marsalis’ poetry book about jazz for kids (so beautifully illustrated) and Neil Young’s Time Fades Away, Bob Dylan’s Dylan and R.E.M.’s Murmur on vinyl. I grabbed a book of America’s best essays from the year earlier, behind-the-scenes stories from the set of Seinfeld and a book about pro-wrestling’s hardcore division. Seriously, I was in there for seven minutes tops. It was like one of those old-school supermarket shopping frenzy game shows…

So, yeah, back to Book Town Books, I’ve been here two days so far and made two visits. I expect to make two more at least. The town has a very good bookstore catering to those that only want new books too. I’ve not purchased from there yet, but the other two in the family have - and I’ve ordered something that will hopefully arrive before I leave.

We have always been this way. But it’s getting worse. Or better. Depends how you look at it.

My brother-in-law, who lives here (the reason for the visit) observed, after watching us descend on Book Town Books last Sunday, “It was like some sort of collective pheromone was exuded from you - the three of you just instantly looked happier!”

Bookstores are our collective happy place. Katy, Oscar and me all love them - we all browse, in different ways, at the same time. We’ll all hit up a bookshop on our own. But when we do it together it’s somehow even better. It’s certainly a hell of a lot more dangerous. A lot more expensive!

Those books at the top there - they’re just mine, just what I’ve bought so far. Oscar hasn’t bought quite as many as me, but he’s bought four or five with his own reviewing money. Katy has bought more than my pack-shot there.

So we’re in a pickle. Us three book dum-dums.

Tomorrow, we’ll shop for a new carry-on bag to help us hide our heft on its return. We are not just book buyers. We are book smugglers.

It started, day one of the trip, in San Francisco. We arrived, and Oscar’s first question when we got out of the airport was “When will we get to a bookstore?” His newly earned money burning a hole in his pocket. We told him it was unlikely we’d get there on day one, it would be a day of rest and getting acquainted.

Well, that was what we thought. But after a few hours of chilling and walking around the neighbourhood we followed a couple of mighty-great pizzas with a stop off to the Fillmore district for the best ice-cream in town. And what should be there like a temptress but Browser Books. Again, I remembered this from my first visit; was worried the pandemic might have seen to it. But no, there it was, still open until 8 or 9 at night. Still filled with the very best books you could hope for - all brilliantly laid out and fairly priced. Like New Zealand’s Unity Books, or Wellington City’s Good Books or Petone’s Shrodinger’s Books only better - because the range is slightly bigger and all of the books that are just brand new are there. Also no pesky price stickers to leave grubby marks

|. You look around for the price, but the price is the price - the one on the back that we cover up in New Zealand and apply our currency and mark-up to.

In Browser Books I bought John Darnielle (from the Mountain Goats’) latest horror novel - which I’ve been wanting for a while, and which was on sale for a fiver outside the door. That’s really what tempted us in, the dreaded sale table. I also picked up the Why Mariah Carey Matters book, the latest in that series which I love. And buying just on instinct, I grabbed Diane Williams’ short story collection, I Hear You’re Rich. Great title! But also, Williams, an established New York-based author with several collections to her name, specialises in writing very short stories - which is something I love. I’ve read the first few in this book and I’m not mad I bought it. I could have bought up half of Browser Books, I had a Spanish-language copy of Stephen King’s Misery in my hand, and then remembered my Spanish is about as good as my Swahili.

Day two, and we’re riding The Big Bus around San Fran and we get off at the Chinatown stop so that we can go to the world-famous City Lights. I’ve been there a couple of other times, including memorably seeing a reading and musical performance by Willy Vlautin - and a reading by the great Barry Gifford. (This time, we arrived into America a day late for a James Ellroy reading. But as my bro-in-law says, “there’s always something going on here!”)

My City Lights experience was great - if a little swift, and probably that was for the best - as I gathered up these four books. (Katy bought about eight!) I’ve wanted the Morricone for a while, the book about black horror cinema will be terrific - I just know it, and not only am I excited to read Dottie Dodgion’s memoir (a female jazz drummer who played with the best of the best several generations before there was any real acceptance for female drummers), I was excited to collect it because, nerd that I am, I’ve started a shelf of drumming/drummer books and memoirs. Lol! And, well, we probably have HOWL already, but when in Rome…

There was a great bookstore in the Fillmore, name escapes me now, we also hit up Dogeared Books in the Mission District, and a few others. Then it was to Grass Valley and Booktown Books. I picked up John Waters’ latest novel for cheap-cheap at Dogeared - again, I had to stop myself!

Day one at Booktown Books in Grass Valley, and it was just overwhelming really. Rooms and rooms of books. Alcoves and corridors with more books. Sale DVDS and CDs and records too. War books and American history. Sci-fi and horror. Even a huge case of collectible books - SIGNED STEPHEN KING BOOKS! I had to look, but could not afford. I did find some curios though…

Here’s the trashy, terrific first grab. A couple of books about Stephen King. And an audiobook on six CDS (!) for the collection…Also a Novelisation - because I had to stalk the store to find their section (hilariously, to me, Alan Duff’s Once Were Warriors was in there, next to copies of film tie-in editions of E.T. And Indiana Jones and so on).

Oh yeah, I’ve also bought a comic and two magazines. I went back to Book Town on my own yesterday just to take it all in properly. And came away with this delightful comic that is so endearingly-bonkers, so MAD magazine meets San Francisco art, right?

So, I’ve ordered a book to turn up this week - and I can’t say I won’t be back at Book Town, I have a day-trip planned back to ‘Frisco to see some more things, so I’m probably going to bump into a bookstore there again. And then there’s the airport on the way home too. We are doomed. We are funny. We are silly. But we are happy. The family that buys books together is broke. Absolutely. But the family that reads together stays together. And has something to do for the months of repair needed after financial crippling, right?