Getting a review copy of Martha Wells' new book in literal seconds made me think about the world previous to the internet, when probably I wouldn't even have found out Wells had a new Murderbot book coming out until I stumbled across it in the New Fiction section of my library branch.
That's if my library happened to buy the book. Not always a given.
Back before the internet, if the library didn't have a book, I didn't have any way to find that book. Often I didn't even know that book existed. I do remember looking at the front of books I liked, where there was often a list of other books written by that author. Then I could (1) fill out interlibrary loan books and sometimes the library would find me a copy or (2) hunt used bookstores, hoping to run across a book or (3) go to the Walden's in the mall. This was after the Walden's bookstore opened in the mall, when I was about thirteen, I think. And Walden's didn't usually have the book anyway.
There were no bookstores anywhere within my reach before I was old enough to ride busses on my own (again, around 13). Drugstores had a section with paperback novels, as did the 7-11 about a mile from my house, and I would sometimes get books there. But mainly I got books from the library and from used bookstores.
When I was in graduate school, I ran across a catalogue for a company that sold books through the mail. I can't remember the name of the company now, and usually the books weren't the kind I wanted to read, but I do remember the delight with which I greeted this catalogue every month.
Amazon began selling books in 1998, the internet tells me. That sounds about right. I didn't really become internet savvy until around 2000, but one of the first things I hooked into was online bookstores. One of these was Alibris, I think. I don't think I started buying books from Amazon for another couple years.
I was still haunting used bookstores and relying on my local public library at that point. We were in Charlotte, NC, which has an amazing public library. And they would buy any book I asked them to. Our local library here will do that too, or at least so far they have.
There were also more bookstores in Charlotte I could get to, since I could drive. Charlotte had a lot of bookstores. Here, there's only one, and it's a Barnes & Noble, which usually doesn't have any books I want to read, though I do get my magazines there.
I still rely on my public library for a lot of the books I read. But now if I want a book and I know it exists, I can usually get it -- from Amazon, in a few seconds if I'm okay with reading an e-copy; from Thrift Books or other sites in a few days or weeks if I want a hard copy.
There is also a great used bookstore here, the Dickson Street Bookshop, which I bought tons of books from when I was in graduate school and still visit sometimes.
In whatever ways the future has disappointed me (waves at everything happening in the country), thirteen year old me would have loved this aspect of 2025. No flying cars, meh, okay. But the books I can have!
Not to mention phones and tablets. Honestly I'd rather have these than flying cars.
6 comments:
Was the mail order catalogue A Common Reader? I miss them!
Your experience of Reading Before the Internet is a lot like mine except that the "big city" near my small town got an indie bookstore when I was, like, 8 or 9. That store has expanded into a lot of non-book stuff--local foods, sweatshirts, other gift-shop-type stuff--but is still a really great bookstore.
It might. have been! I can't find any pictures of the catalog on the internets, but the description on Wikipedia matches what I remember.
I remember the B&N being the only place to buy books! And also just reading whatever I could get at the library, including every single Agatha Christie and a really peculiar assortment of good and bad fiction (Zora Neale Hurston all the way down to the world's worst science fiction).
I too remember reading whatever I could find at the library! And yes, including a lot of terrible fiction along with a lot of good fiction. I read every single Ed McBain novel available, for instance, and a lot of stuff by a guy whose name I don't remember, who wrote about kids growing up in the mountains and whose favorite verb was "strove." He taught me a lot about writing, tbf (i.e. what not to do).
As a kid I had a small rural library. I still remember the day I realized that I could show that list at the beginning of the book to the librarian, and she would GET those books for me to borrow. I think it was some kind of rural library consortium, but it felt like magic.
Yes, interlibrary loan was GREAT. The librarians at my library were mean, though, and did not like when I put requests in. Though they DID get them for me, so.
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