Morning Thoughts, Supermarket Reading

Hello, I have finished reading Oil by Upton Sinclair. I will be taking some time to take notes so I can write a review of this very complex novel. There is still a lot that is very relevant in this book to todays world. In fact, I feel in some ways, it is a novel written before its time.

Right now, I am relaxing a bit. I looked at a few sites from blogcatalog. I went through and looked at library related blogs. There wasn't that much that was very interesting. I looked at both recommended blogs on the American Booksellers Association site and the American Library Association site. Only a few seemed interesting. American Library Association recommended http://www.bookslut.com/blog which is fairly entertaining, but can be a little raunchy at times. After looking at the American Booksellers Association blog, I only found one blog which they linked to which was very interesting; Vroman's books, the largest and oldest independent bookstore in Southern California http://vromansbookstore.blogspot.com/

It was interesting looking at these sites. I am not sure that it really made any difference. I am still looking around at professional blogs. There is one for Infotoday which covers their conferences. It is actually kind of interesting to read conference blogs because there is always something interesting to point out. The point of conferences is to entertain the attendees in addition to whatever professional activities go on. The Infotoday Blog covers four conferences over several years, Computers In Libraries, SLA-- Special Library Associatin Conference, Internet Librarian, and Online Information in London. http://www.infotodayblog.com/

I am not sure this does anything for my regular readers who are interested in my thoughts on books. There is a classic statement that "You don't want to sell anyone else's products. Direct people to things in your store." I think it applies to websites as well.

I was at the supermarket shopping for a little bit to get groceries. Something to remember is that 60% of books are no longer sold in bookstores. There is a small section for adult books at teh supermarket. It is mainly bestselling thrillers and romance books. Authors like Dan Brown and Jeffrey Archer who can entice a person to buy on impulse. The romances have your typical Fabio Lanzoni covers. Fabio was supposedly the first man to write a romance novel not under a pseudonym. I think of him as a romantic version of the cartoon character He-Man. I find him to be quite funny. If I go to the drugstore Walgreens near my house, the book selection is no different.

What really surprised me during the visit to the supermarket is that they were selling a few paperback reference items, the Merck Manual, the Oxford Essential Dictionary, and a Net Carb Counter. The Merck Manual was the most surprising item. I guess people are becoming a little more conscious about their health. Of course because this is superbowl time, there was also a glossy magazine on the superbowl.

The magazine selection was no different than you might find in Harpell's drug store. It had your typical titles like Forbes, Playstation, Wired, Nascar 2008, Bride, Cosmopolitan, along with a mix of crossword puzzle books and now sudoku books.

Next to the baby food section there was a selection of little golden books. I actually like a lot of the little golden books, there are condensed versions of Richard Scarry and Thomas the Tank Engine which are really quite nice. Unfortunately almost all of the Little Golden Books were disney items like Aladdin, the Jungle Book, Home on the Range, and other childrens movie tie ins.

There was a small section of childrens books not far from the Little Golden Books rack. These mainly consisted of popular authors and movie tie ins as well. There were Shrek children's books, The Spiderwick Chronicles-- a soon to be movie which looks like it will be spin off of the string of preteen fantasy movies that are coming out; The Chronicles of Narnia, The Golden Compass, and Harry Potter. Also the redwall books by Brian Jacques were being sold. I think they are going to make these into a movie as well.

Among the drek were a few decent board books. I rather like Eric Carle and Margaret Wise Brown. But, for the most part everything was a commercial designed to encourage you to buy or see another commercial product.

As you came up to the front checkout counter, there were some magazine racks with Better Homes and Gardens, Cosmopolitan, the National Enquirer, and a few other cheap newspapers.

It is increasingly hard to get the Weekly World News at the supermarket or even at the local corner stores. The corner store is Pakistani and they say they won't carry it because it repeatedly insults muslims and they won't carry it. The Korean news store which is not far off says the same thing. The Korean store claims it is stupid, obnoxious, and racist. I can't get it at 7-11 either for the same reason.

I can get it at the Walgreens. They don't seem to pay attention to that kind of thing. The Weekly World News is basically the paper which claims things like Aliens abducted Elvis, and Batboy is Hunting for Osama Bin Laden. I admit I read it sometimes for a laugh. It is dumb. It is also not politically correct.