My Library

So I know I meant to talk about books at some point on here, but I haven't so far. I blame that on the fact that I've been rereading some Star Wars books recently which amuse me greatly. They aren't as intelligence building as that autobiography of MLK I just bought or Nixonland, which is about why politics have descended into the red state - blue state anger thing we currently got. But you know what? In the words of Stephen King, sometimes you just buy the Big Mac and Fries because it tastes good. You gotta enjoy your life and all you know. So I'll get to those other books soon enough. But I figure in this inaugural book post, I'll talk a little bit about my library, both past, present, and future.

Young John really liked reading books. Because books didn't require having hand-eye coordination or artistic talent. Plus all that blah blah blah about worlds of adventure and magic and stuff, you know. I liked stories, what can I say. I was like that kid in The Pagemaster (how's that for a reference?) but without the talking books. My parents liked raising my sister and me to read because of the simple fact that it shut us up. We were never looked at in church with those angry eyes, mainly because we were quiet and reading. I used to read at like everything. Mary's soccer games, church, or when I was supposed to be doing homework (this has continued...). Don't get me wrong, I liked playing outside and stuff, but I really liked books. My parents didn't have to call us inside for supper, they had to tell us to put the book down and eat (this also still continues). When school was canceled one day, rather than leave us home all day our Mom gave us books and had us sit in the back of her classroom and read. I read a lot of nerdy science fiction books, mainly Star Wars with a few Bruce Coville (shout outs to My Teacher Was an Alien) and all the Calvin and Hobbes mixed in. I also really liked a series by Terry Deary called Horrible Histories; it taught me all the incredibly gruesome things about different civilizations, which was really fun. Thank goodness my parents didn't believe in censorship.

Present John's literary taste has broadened largely. While I still read Star Wars books occasionally, I've read enough to know what the good ones are and don't read the crappy bad ones. For example, the series where they start out by killing Chewbacca. F that noise, R. A. Salvatore. But about 4 years or so ago, Chris infected me with Stephen King disease. That's where he introduced me to The Gunslinger and I got this bad disease where whenever I went into a bookstore I went and checked out the King section for something that looked new or awesome. Sad to say, I found a lot of awesome books there. They're all pretty good, even the crappy ones, and the great ones are really great. So now I read King often, and I still have a mess to read. At some point I got into Christopher Moore, and at some other point I got into comic books. I'm not sure who to blame for those, but comics have killed me. I like the great stories and the cool pictures. What can I say, inside all of us beats the heart of a ten year old. I further blame Kelly for getting me into Jim Butcher and all those, and things have branched out a bit from there. But I also read real books too. Like I said, I bought Nixonland and MLK's autobiography, along with a lot of books about sports too. I read and enjoy classics like To Kill A Mockingbird and Moby Dick and Dante's Inferno. I have The Blind Side on my "To Read Shelf" along with far too many other books. I've read LOTR, but you know what? The movies were better. There, I said it. So I own a lot of books. Some people collect DVDs, some collect music, I collect books.

And what's going to happen to future John? That poor, downtrodden bastard? Well, Future John is getting a library in his house. Because I've always wanted a library. It will of course require several bookcases, but I don't have to buy them all at once. And when it's done it'll be awesome. I'll have a fireplace, and a comfortable chair to curl up in and read, and I'll make it look all cool so that way if people want to come over and either borrow books or set up some cool game in the library, both would be acceptable. I haven't started designing my house yet, but there's definitely going to be a library. And there may be a secret door that leads to the Batcave, because I cannot see how having that would be a bad idea. I dunno, just a thought. As for book taste, I imagine things will spread out a little more; they already have now and I can only imagine them getting bigger.