Books 'n things

Despite living in a relatively rural area, I have access to quite a few neat places. There is one used bookstore, one comic book shop, one pseudo card shop, two antique malls, and five thrift stores, all within 30 minutes of me. Not too mention pretty much all of the retail establishments that anyone could ever need (I wouldn't mind if there were a few less of those around). Expanding the drive time by just ten minutes increase some of those numbers, especially the thrift stores. If I'm ever feeling froggy, Knoxville's not that far away either, which is home to a plethora of fun places, most notably, McKay's. And of course I got Nashville in the other direction, which is a longer drive, and isn't a city that I've been overly impressed with, but it is home to a more than a few places that are worth stopping in at (not as many as Knoxville though), the biggest of which is the twice-a-month card show (twice-a-month during normal times).

In the six years that I've been here, I'd say that my most frequented place has been the Book Cellar, which has been featured many times here on the blog. I used to try to stop in at least once every six weeks or so, but since the Rona got going, I've found that those have increased to about every 2-3 weeks, and judging by the turnaround in inventory, I'm not the only one. It really is a much better used bookstore than you'd expect to find in such a small town, although said small town has seen exponential growth over the last couple of years, as it continually makes "best places to retire" lists, and is now making "best place to escape your post-apocalyptic city" lists as well. I won't share my thoughts on the towns growth in general, but will say that it has had a positive effect on the bookstore, as the quality of the selection just continues to get better.

The store was recently put up for sale, bought, and is now under new ownership/management. Normally this would've been cause for concern, but this too has seemingly improved the store, especially where organization is concerned, all of sudden it's much easier to find things. I was a little worried that the new owners might come in and make some unwanted changes (unwanted by me that this), namely no longer continuing to sale videos, as that's starting to happen elsewhere. But my fears have gone unfounded, as not only have they not stopped selling videos (or CD's and DVD's), but the selection in that department has actually increased as well.

Looking at my post history, I see that I haven't done a Book Cellar post since early November, and have gone three times since, so I guess it's time to do some catching up. It's worth noting too that on two of these stops, I had many other places to hit in a very short amount of time, thus only having a few minutes to look around.

#1:

Have you ever wondered how different The Breakfast Club would've turned out if Bobby Stine had written it (and let's be honest, who reading this hasn't?), if so, you're in luck, because that's pretty much the best way I can think of to describe this book. Minor spoiler alert: The ending of this book is considerably different than that of the film!

I don't have a list made, but if I was ever to make a list of my top 10 favorite vampire films, Count Yorga would be an automatic entry. I like everything about this movie (well, except for maybe the cat scene, that's kind of gross), and have since I first saw it at the age of 12 (watched it on AMC not too long after we got cable again for the first time in a number of years). And I've had it on video for decades now, but couldn't pass up the opportunity to upgrade that old video for a buck.

I hadn't realized that this series was now available on DVD (apparently it has been for a few years btw). I had only ever seen two episodes, so this was must get. This pack was missing it's slipcase, hence there being no shot at the synopsis on the back. Basically though, it's just young Charlie Bronson playing a freelance photographer who always seems to find himself in the middle of the action, and more often than not this action is of the criminal variety. It'll feel dated to most modern/young eyes, but I really enjoy it, genuinely enjoy it that is, not tongue-in-cheek enjoy it.

There are a couple of free boxes out front that I almost always check despite there almost never being anything of interest to me within their confines. This trip proved to be an exception though, as I found this possibly interesting coffee table book on college football, I say possibly interesting because I still haven't read it yet, but it was free, so there's no rush.

#2:

I saw Amityville 3-D on commercial television sometime before my teens, even at that age when garbage films can seem good, I still didn't care for it, and have never seen it again since. And yet, I didn't hesitate for a single second to grab this adaptation when I found it. The book isn't perfect either, but is considerably better than the film. The narrative is much clearer as well. It's funny too, I had forgotten some of the film after all of these years, but after reading this, and then remembering some of those forgotten parts, I feel quite confident in saying that I believe that this film/book was the inspiration for Ringu (or The Ring for those of you who don't like foreign films). There are way too many similarities for it not to have been. It's also worth noting that this paperback was an import, and is still sporting it's nifty Hodder & Stoughton sticker on the back.

I will never grow tired of finding old films that I haven't seen. I was already quite familiar with Kiss of Death, but the opportunity to watch it just hadn't ever presented itself. I enjoyed it a great deal, but do realize that it's definitely not going to be everyone's cup of tea.

#3:

Through the first 80 pages or so, I was ready to say that this as one of my favorite books ever, as well as proclaim Graham Masterton to be one of the great modern horror writers... then the rest of the book happened! This was the first book of Graham's that I've read, and even after a few weeks have passed since I finished it, I still don't know what to think. The first third of the book was great, very Lovecraftian in it's slow build of an unseen terror, but then it just goes bonkers with an addition that came from further than left field. If I didn't know any better, I'd swear that he had ideas for two different stories, but couldn't flush either of them out to book length, causing him instead to decide to mash both of them together. I can honestly say that I've never encountered anything like this before, hence my perplexedness (I know, it's not a word, but it works here, so...). Seeing as how the first part was so good, I will give his stuff another chance, hopefully this mash-up of things that don't go together was an anomaly for him, and not the norm (Norm!!!!!).

I was familiar with probably 60% of this books content, but it never hurts to have a refresher. For my money, the most interesting thing that I didn't already know was that William Peter Blatty spent 15 years writing The Exorcist. I've long known of the story that it was based on, but had never heard that it taken him so long to finish the book. Seeing as how it was one of the more successful books (then later, films) of it's era, it really furthers that old adage about not rushing things (now if I could just remember that when blogging, I might actually be able to produce something worth reading!).

They do have used magazines too, but rarely do they have anything of this, or the followings, caliber. 

At one time, Filmfax was one of the better movie magazines out there. I say was though it is still around, but they've lost a few steps in recent years. Between most things having already been discussed ad nauseam, and running out of people worth interviewing, their content just isn't what it used to be. Thankfully, #45 here was put out during their prime, and was well worth the fifty cent price tag.

Ah, 1995, the year in which it was virtually impossible to pass a newsstand without seeing Mulder and Scully on the cover of some magazine, sigh... I want to go back!

OUTRÉ was put out by the the fine folks over at Fimfax, and while not nearly as good, is still something that I will always pick up if cheap.

Horror comics/monster magazines/movie magazines are just about the only thing I get excited about finding out in the wild anymore, and all of these certainly fit the bill. Now if I could just find them more often...

Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.