Buying books on the cheap.
I love used books and I love remaindered books but most of all, I love, love, love cheap books. You can call them “inexpensive,” if you find “cheap” too pejorative, so long as you point me to a pile of ‘em. I found a new (to me) remaindered bookstore in the Medford Outlet Center in Medford, MN and scooped up six books, four being audiobooks, of which they have an ample selection. I was so delighted, I thought I’d make a post about a few of my favorite “inexpensive” bookstores and websites.
Seek out used books.
When I was in middle school, I fell in love with the book section of Goodwill stores. Filled with musty, yellowing paperbacks, this sea of dime novels and quarter hardcovers fueled much of my reading material during those early teen years. Peter Benchley, James Clavell, Michael Crichton, Ray Bradbury, David Eddings, Stephen King, and George Orwell by the shelf full. Nowadays, pickings are a little slim, but I still stand firm that thrift stores like Goodwill, the Salvation Army, and Savers have a veritable untapped treasure trove of cheap reads, just for you.
If you shop in Uptown Minneapolis, than you’ve probably stopped by Magers & Quinn Booksellers, who have as many new titles as they do used. One can usually find a title in the new section there, only to walk across the store to the used section and find the same title used for a few dollars less. And if not, well, buy it new because it’s supporting a great store! The staff is friendly and helpful, too. If they feel you’re making a solid purchase, they won’t hesitate to tell you so, and I’ve found, they do it in such a manner that one doesn’t feel self-conscious or that they’re snooty. They simply come off as people who appreciate good writing, and I’m always interested in those sorts of people.
I tend to buy too many books, so I limit much of my active seeking of used books to the bi-annual Rummage Sale at Excelsior United Methodist Church in Excelsior, MN. To my dear Minnesota readers, this is the place to go for Jon Hassler, Jonathan Kellerman, Garrison Keillor, Alice Sebold, Milan Kundera, Nick Hornby, Jodi Picoult, Jean M. Auel, David Sedaris, Carl Hiassen, and many more. The children’s section is typically well-stocked, too, and that’s beyond the battered copies of Narnia and Harry Potter fare. It’s held bi-annually during the last weekend in April and the last weekend in September / first weekend in October.
I’ve never participated, but I think BookCrossing.com is a wonderful idea. Take your most beloved books, the books you want others to love as much as you do, and give them away. Register them at the website, then put them in a public place for someone else to pick up, update its status on the website, read and enjoy, then repeat the process. I’m too much of a “Stuff Owner,” so I don’t see myself parting with books, really, but again I find this idea fascinating. Here’s an NPR podcast from 2002 about the phenomenon.
Seek out remaindered books.
Remaindred books are those books which may rock it, may rock it hardcore, but for some reason or another just aren’t selling anymore, so the publisher basically tries to liquidate them at super-duper low prices. If you’ve ever picked up a book with a magic marker slash on the pages spine or over the UPC bar code, it’s probably a remaindered book.
I’ve been going to bookcloseouts.com for years, as faithful readers of this blog know. They have a wide selection of both genre and literary greats, and all for prices ranging from two bucks to other numbers under ten. I’ve snatched a few titles by Elmore Leonard, Neil Gaiman, Harry Crews, Kevin Brockmeier, Nick Hornby, Ray Bradbury, Michael Cunningham, Alice Sebold, Walt Whitman, Stephen King, Richard Matheson, Chris Crutcher, Toni Morrison, Flannery O’Connor, Richard Wright, Neil Simon, Louise Erdrich, ZZ Packer, and Dorothy Allison, just to name a few. If that list of great writers doesn’t whet your reader’s appetite, I don’t know what will. Click here for a $5 off $35 coupon.
I’ll say a little more about the store I found in Meford this week, Book Warehouse. They appeared to have a little of everything, and in particular I picked up some Neil Gaiman, Gwendolyn Brooks, Elmore Leonard, and a production artwork coffee table book about The Incredibles. An unexpected bonus was a punch card claiming that for every $100 I purchase, I’ll receive $10 off the next purchase of $15 or more. With my better half here at Scrawlers living just south of Medford, as well as road trips to Iowa-based family, something tells me I’ll be stopping here often enough to see that punch card get used, and then some.
And of course, there’s always the bargain sections at Barnes & Noble and other such bookstores. Never miss the chance to peruse through these shelves for neglected reading. I’ve found some great work by T.C. Boyle, Michael Chabon, Elmore Leonard, Stephen King, and more in these places, and who knows what you’ll find.
The above certainly isn’t an exhaustive list, but it’s a good start if you’ve been meaning to build a pile of cheap books. I’ll have to write about my favorite merchants for new books (I’m looking your way, Dreamhaven Books, Comics & Art) one of these days. If you’ve got leads and hook-ups on where to get cheap books, toss ‘em in a comment.
-nm
Technorati Tags: used books, remaindered books, dreamhaven, book warehouse, bookcloseouts.com, Neil Gaiman, cheap books
Saving ideas and surprising yourself.
I’m sitting in my uncle’s shop, waiting for some car repairs, and pulled out the laptop for some writing time. I have assigned writings to work on, but while creating a new folder for one of these projects, I ran into a one-sentence story idea I’d typed up and left untouched for just over two years. I read it, gave it a moment’s thought, then just started writing. By the time my burst of energy subsided, I’d turned two paragraphs into five pages. It’s a father/daughter story, my first, and working on it today taught me (or at least refreshed me) on two important notes regarding creativity:
Save every idea you have.
Here’s an example of an idea I could have easily deleted by now, or never even written down in the first place. After all, I’ve never been a daughter or a father, nor written a father-daughter story. I tend to write about young boys as protagonist because I’ve been a young boy and I have perspective and philosophy on growing up into manhood. Essentially, this is not the sort of idea I would usually give a chance, but I’m glad it struck me enough to write it down, initially.
I have piles of Post-It notes, scratch paper, notebooks, receipts, and business cards filled with scribbled ideas, dialogue, plot points, images, and characters who at one point I thought may be worth exploring. Many of those, I’ve typed up into long “idea lists,” others like the father/daughter story in question have gotten their own document, while still others linger in the paper piles, hungry for the day I quit being lazy and help them get busy.
If you’re not writing down every idea you have, you’re crippling your creativity. They may not all be winners and they may not all get equal attention, but if you don’t record what strikes you, you’re missing out on a crucial step of your creative process – ideas can come at any time, anywhere, and it’s best to scrawl them down before they dissipate into thin air.
Look, I don’t know if this piece will go anywhere, or if I’ll grow tired of it before it reaches it’s full potential. What I do know is it’s writing-in-practice. It’s me taking an idea I had, giving it a chance, and seeing what happens. I’m not opposed to that.
Let writing surprise you.
I surprised myself three times while writing on this piece – once in storytelling structure, once with characterization, and once in combining two long-nebulous ideas.
I essentially wrote two micro-chapters, meaning they work as chapters to me but should likely be fleshed out more to create full chapters. Again, it’s a father/daughter story, and after I presented the first micro-chapter story from the daughter’s point of view, I found one of the lines I wrote at the top of the second micro-chapter came from the father’s point of view. When I noticed that, I continued writing the chapter from the father’s perspective. Nick Hornby does something similar with About a Boy, rotating chapter point-of-view between an adult, Will, and a young boy, Marcus. I dig this as a storytelling structure and if I pursue this project, I plan to give this structure a try.
My second surprise came when the father announced he didn’t have the internet in his apartment. Not only was his daughter shocked, so was I. It’s been a while since I’ve been in an environment dominated by luddites or those who haven’t bridged the digital divide. To me, this simple resistance to modern technology and convenience told me a lot of about this father as a character, and it was fascinating to have him expose this to me as I wrote. I’m not exaggerating, either. He literally told me while I typed it. I was simply the stenographer to his confessional testimony.
Finally, the combination of two ideas hit me as I sat back to take in what I’d written. I scrolled down to the end of the piece and re-read the two paragraph idea. It suddenly became clear that another idea I’d had floating around, one about a teenage girl about the same age and attitude as the daughter in this story, was a perfect piece to slap into this puzzle. I’ve never been a fan of forcing an image or plot point into a story just because it’s “too good” to not use, but I believe it’s been floating around in my brain, unused, long enough. Plus, it just fits. This idea coupling may even be the catalyst which keeps me writing this piece.
Steve Martin once said, “The greatest thing you can do is surprise yourself.” I couldn’t agree more.
-nm
Technorati Tags: creativity, writing surprise, write down ideas, save ideas, Nick Hornby, Steve Martin
Why do improv festivals?
I’ve returned from the Gainesville Improv Festival a little tired and a lot satisfied. First some diary, then some reflection:
I ended up doing two shows, one “Uncle Ukulele” and one jam. My solo performance on Thursday had some fun highlights and while I don’t believe it was the best show I’ve done, it picked up steam as it went along and the audience was with me. I was invited to play in the GIF All-Stars Armando Diaz jam on Friday night. It was a fun, low-stakes show with a diverse cast of ten from Chicago, LA, Minneapolis, and various Florida cities. The weekend was filled with familiar faces like Tom O’Donnell, Dave Hyland, and Dustin Sharpe (Mod 27), Jesse Parent and Joe Rogan (Jokyr & Jesster), Mark Bratton aka Ho’Lease and the boys from Pimprov, and plenty of new Florida faces including Skyler, Jeff of ArACka, and Brian Jaeger and James Gallen (Taser-Friendly). The parties? Thursday, too loud. Friday, just right.
On Saturday, the fiancée and I headed down to Orlando to catch a show at SAK Comedy Lab, featuring her uncle and SAK artistic director, Dave Russell. The most-unexpected moment (and thus, a definite highlight) of the entire weekend was walking into SAK and seeing Jim Doyle’s headshot on the “Who’s Performing” wall. Jim and I met on YESand.com a few years ago and then in-person during the 2006 Miami Improv Festival. It was fun to see Jim and Dave (plus the rest of the talented cast) play to a crowd who ate it up. Finally, we saw some old friends from my high school days and had a terrible waitress (a requirement of any vacation).
GIF marked my fifth improv festival invitation and the seventh festival I’ve attended, overall. But I’ve never made a dime on them. In fact, I’m plunked down several thousand dollars in airfare, hotel, car rentals, submission fees, and parties over the years on festivals alone. It begs the question, why go to festivals at all? It’s expensive, it’s time-consuming, and it doesn’t put more butts in the seats at your local theater. So why go through the trouble of taping a show, creating a submission tape, writing a bio, printing photos, spending a few bucks on an application fee, and then essentially “pay-to-play”?
Improv festivals typically have an education component worth your time.
There reaches a point for many improvisors when classes don’t necessarily entice, but for many beginners looking to sharpen skills or veterans looking to learn from the best, classes are the way to go. You don’t live in a city with a big improv scene? Go to a festival in one of those cities and learn from their top instructors. On top of that, many festivals bring in instructors from across the nation for their locals (and visitors) to learn from. It’s an opportunity more young improvisors could and should take advantage of on a regular basis.
Where better to learn what the nation is doing in improv than at an improv festival?
Online communication, articles, books and so on are great ways to learn how other people are treating the art form, but there’s something to be said about experiencing it, first-hand. Improv festivals pull in performers and students from all over the world. Thanks to festivals, I’ve met performers from Japan, Norway, England, NYC, LA, Denver, Toronto, Florida, Chicago, San Francisco, Phoenix, Boston, Salt Lake City, Chapel Hill, Honolulu, and so on. What am I supposed to do, travel to all of those places, individually?
Improv festivals can help you gain exposure.
Make no mistake, many people are trying to get their name out there, and an improv festival can help you do that. I don’t see this as a bad or self-indulgent thing. Getting out there and getting known, even in something as tiny as the improvosphere, can be a step in the right direction, especially in the realm of networking. As for folks who say going to festivals only to become famous, I liken these people to the haters who complain when their favorite “local” band makes it “big,” crying out how the artist “sold out.” Dude, what did you want, for the band you love to stay your tiny little secret and be miserable not trying to move on to something bigger and better than the every-third-Thursday open jam night at Bar McGrew? Grow up.
Improv festivals play a key role in networking.
I had my time and energies spent in the above three categories, but I now mostly enjoy festivals for the networking. Improv festivals are like family reunions - old friends are happy to see each other and the new folk get welcomed into the fold. It’s fun to know I have connections around the nation with a shared love of this little art form. For me, it has translated into couches to crash on (which I’ve done, from San Francisco to Chicago to Denver to Orlando and so on), to phone calls / blogs / message boards for discussion (YESand, CIN), to unique performance opportunities (the jam session I put together with Tom of Mod 27 and Jokey & Jesster at MIF 2006 immediately springs to mind), and publishing opportunities (how many times can I type YESand.com in this post?). All of those things happened because people got to know me and trust me at improv festivals.
That’s why I’ll keep applying to festivals, that’s why I’ll keep going to festivals, and that’s why I’ll keep recommending festivals to improvisors of any experience level.
-nm
Technorati Tags: gainesville improv festival, networking, sak, improv festival, yes and, mod 27, pimprov
Rehearsing Solo Improv
My perspective on this blog has shifted of late, from only being about writing to touching on creativity overall. To this end, here’s my first official post about improv…
I’m in the midst of rehearsing for an appearance tomorrow night at the Gainesville Improv Festival in Sunny Florida and have really found the difference between rehearsing with people and rehearsing alone fascinating. You see, my latest improv project is a solo piece entitled “Uncle Ukulele.” I play an overly upbeat children’s entertainer who sings songs based on audience suggestions while accompanying himself on, what else, the ukulele. There are other elements in the show, including different genres of songs, puppets, stories, and typically an “electrifying” ending. At the heart of the show is audience participation - my character interacts with the audience from the top of the show to the very last word. It’s integral the audience say “yes” to being young boys and girls for twenty-five minutes and join me on the ride. Having fun with the audience is at the heart of this show, I cannot stress it enough.
So here I am, rehearsing the show alone at home.
I’ve rehearsed in improv ensembles. During scenes in rehearsal, there’s a built-in audience of other actors on the “back line,” ready to jump in and perform a new scene but also watching the scene at-hand with great intent. I’ve also rehearsed in an improv duo, and while there is no audience there is someone to bounce ideas off. Rehearsing a solo show is a solo experience. If something comes up that’s funny, I have to chuckle at it in my head and stay in character. If something isn’t working, I try to persevere as though someone were watching, no matter how great the inclination is to just quit it and start over. If anything, I’d say rehearsing solo keeps me on my toes more than any duo or ensemble rehearsal has.
Most interesting to me is when I find myself having conversations with hypothetical audience members. They’re each unique and I go back and forth with them, working on my tone (super-friendly!) and facial expressions (super-smiley!). Some of them are even uncooperative (what does it say that I practice what to do if I run across a jerk?). I must say, a lot of this happens in the car when NPR loses my attention. If you’ve ever been driving and see someone singing their heart out behind their steering wheel, radio cranked, imagine seeing me actively speaking with Harvey the Rabbit as I sit behind my steering wheel, smile cranked.
There’s more to speak about on this topic, but the above post is a good start. I wanted to get something out to you, dear reader, before I embark on my trip to Gainesville. Questions / comments welcomed.
-nm
Technorati Tags: improv, Gainesville Improv Festival, ukulele, rehearsal, solo show, creativity
“And now for something completely different.”
Perhaps you’ve found yourself in a situation similar to what I’m experiencing this week. After spending a few months researching a new writing project and working hard to write a grand opening, I was able to turn in twenty-four pages for workshop. To say I’m eager to receive notes is an understatement, but I will have to wait until next week. Now comes the decision of whether to continue with the project in the meantime, or await workshop notes until trudging forward. If I believe in the workshop process, which I do, I should probably wait to receive notes. That said, it means a whole week in which I’m not working on the project. I’m itching to continue, but will have to let it simmer. Conundrum, conundrum, you say?
Not so. Why not take this time to turn an eye onto another project? Something on the backburner, something that deserves a bit of the spotlight, something in a completely different vein. A week away from the project is just what I need to look at it with fresh eyes. Working on a different project in the interim will keep my creative skills sharp and leave me more options in the future. The project I choose in the interim isn’t intended to steal focus away from my main project, but if I give it the attention it deserves, who knows, it could become the next main project.
In short, don’t turn a break from one project into a break from writing, altogether. Writing should be happening all the time.
-nm
Technorati Tags: new project, taking a break from writing, conundrum, Monty Python
Tasks At-Hand vs. Tasks At-Leisure
I’m having new thoughts on deadlines. This morning, I was up against a deadline for classes both in terms of what I would be teaching and what I would be learning, and after working on it for a while I completely stopped even though the tasks weren’t finished. Instead, I cleaned my bathroom, which I’ve been meaning to do for quite some time. I mean, I cleaned it: spray the mirrors, wipe the countertops, arrange the health products, scrub the toilet, sweep and mop the floor, the works. Even in the midst of this, with time ticking away on unfinished tasks, I thought to myself, “Why am I doing this now?”
It reminded me of an episode of The Simpsons when Mr. Burns opens a casino in Springfield and Marge becomes a gambling addict. In Marge’s absence, Lisa turns to Homer to help her with her pageant costume. Homer tries to help her, but keeps getting distracted in an over-the-top montage that even sees him don a welder’s mask and torch in an attempt to repair the front bumper dents on the pink car. Those dents have been in that car since the first episode. Only then, with Lisa’s pageant moments away and her in desperate need, does Homer decide to finish up this other task.
And here I was, scrubbing my toilet, being Homer.
I want to take this experience and find some helpful twist to it. In the end, I finished up the tasks at hand in time for classes, but I added stress to the situation. I’m going to ponder on this one, see if I can’t find a way for this task-at-hand and task-at-leisure concept can’t amalgamate somehow, and all with less stress. I’m open to your ideas, dear reader.
-nm
Technorati Tags: deadlines, the simpsons, unfinished tags, productivity, toilet
“Read a little bit of the books you bought…”
Read a little bit
Read a little bit
Of the books you bought
Those are my too-cute / too-clever / (too-copyright infringing?) new lyrics to Supertramp’s “Give a Little Bit” set theme-wise to reading and the never-ending pile of books one continues to purchase. I don’t eat all of the food in my refrigerator before it goes bad, I don’t , and I don’t read all of the books I purchase. This is wasteful, but I’m getting better. And perhaps I’m not doing as badly as I thought. Some data to back this claim:
My favorite online bookseller is BookCloseouts.com, a website specializing in remaindered and reduced-price books. They’re great about having $5 off $35 orders, effectively wiping out shipping on the $2-5 books, as well as having a decent selection. I’ve picked up a bit of Elmore Leonard’s mid-70s stuff there, as well as fresher novels for my MFA instead of giving the bookstore my money. In fact, a large order came in last night (and I entered most of them into LibraryThing) and going through the books sparked this writing. Here’s a breakdown of my purchases, overall:
I’ve ordered precisely seventy books from BookCloseouts.com since 2003.
Of those seventy, twelve are books I’d already read. That leaves fifty-eight.
Of those fifty-eight, I’ve read twenty-nine. That still leaves another twenty-nine.
That means in the last four years of ordering books, I’ve read 67% of what I ordered, or still need to read 33% of what’s left, if one wishes to look at it that way.
And that’s on top of what I purchase through Amazon (my favorite for new literature), BarnesAndNoble (who somehow convinced me to spend $25 to get discounts, though I use that mostly for their semi-annual DVD sales), and beyond. Perhaps I’m reading more than I thought I was. That said, I can always be reading more. And let’s not fool ourselves - a handful of those books in my “read” pile, many of which are also in my BookCloseouts.com pile, are novels and short story collections for my MFA. Some of the books I own, particularly from BookCloseouts.com, I’m not sure I’ll ever read. The book on film lighting is a wonderful guide, for example, but I purchased it at a different point in my life, when I thought that would come in especially handy. And some books are lost. And some books turned out not to be what I thought they would be, so they sit on the shelf looking smart.
Need an excuse to read? Schedule it like you schedule TV.
Of late, I’ve tried to make thirty to sixty minutes of reading time per day happen. It doesn’t always happen, but scheduling this time instead of television seems a wise choice. And it’s in a television-sized time slot, something I’m used to dealing with. I won’t finish a book in under an hour, so I’ll just pretend it’s like a serialized show. I haven’t found the best time of the day for me to read, yet, nor my favorite place to read, either (I have a serious lack of comfortable chairs in my apartment). Still, the TV-sized pieces of reading are manageable, and if I’m prepared to schedule time to watch “can’t miss” TV, then I’d better be prepared to schedule time to read “can’t miss” literature. In fact, that equation feels backwards, to me.
So what about you? How many of your books have you read? How many are left? I won’t ask if you’re reading, but I will certainly ask when are you reading?
-nm
Technorati Tags: bookcloseouts.com, reading list, time to read, give a little bit, mfa
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About
Brought together by mutual interest in creative arts and web development, Minnesota duo Barry Hess and Nathan Melcher founded Scrawlers.com in 2006. Scrawlers marries creativity with a web-based outlet for aspiring writers and The Scrawl blog seeks to add fuel your creative fire.
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