Randy Turner's Blog - Posts Tagged "reading"
Used book stores and the Bookmobile
From the time I was four, I was reading books. In the summer, I would show up at Gum's Store on the main street in Newtonia so I would be the first person to board the Bookmobile when it arrived.
We were given a limit of 10 books to check out for a month and I always hit that quota. It was mostly baseball biographies and fiction, though I did mix in a few mysteries.
Normally, I would take my stack of books, walk over to the store, plunk down my dime for a bottle of Doctor Pepper, then sit on the sidewalk on the west side of the building and read one of the books.
Sadly, 10 books were never enough. I usually finished them in about three days and had to wait another three and a half weeks for the Bookmobile to return.
Of course, it was easier when school was in session and I had access to the library, but school libraries were not well stocked in the '60s, and even our libraries had to rely on regular visits from the Bookmobile.
When I grew older, one of the highlights of Saturdays was going to Neosho for shopping with my mom. I was not a big shopper, but I loved the bookstore on the square. It was a wonderland of the latest issues of the Sporting News, Baseball Digest, Sport, Marvel and DC comic books, and paperbacks.
And I had a varied reading list. At school, I continued to read the sports books, but I was branching out and reading everything from Les Miserables (a wonderful book) to anything by Jane Austen, and developing a taste for books about history and politics.
As I was attending East Newton High School, my mom told me that a used book store had opened just off the Neosho square. By that time I was driving, so I began stopping at the store on a weekly basis and buying books for prices ranging from 25 cents to a dollar.
After that, Taylor's House of Books opened on the boulevard and I later added used book stores in Joplin, Pierce City, and even Brooklyn Heights to my rounds.
This week during my school's spring break, I have spent much of my time doing promotional work for my new book, Scars from the Tornado: One Year at Joplin East Middle School. I have visited various public libraries, donating copies of the book and some of my earlier books, and I have also been arranging retail outlets.
At this point, the book has no retail outlets in Neosho. The bookstore has been gone from the square for decades, and with the closing last year of Books N' Java, the city of Neosho no longer has any used book stores.
Earlier today, I had the pleasure of visiting what I believe is the only used book store in Newton County, the Read Again Book Store in Granby. Not only did I find an excellent retail outlet for Scars from the Tornado, 5:41, and Spirit of Hope, but I also reacquainted myself with an old friend, buying a paperback copy of Pride and Prejudice, as well as a history of the 1968 presidential election.
Though used bookstores have dwindled with the increased availability of books over the internet, there is still no better way to spend time than poring over both bestsellers and obsurities from the past. So I will continue to enjoy my visits to Always Buying Books and Changing Hands Book Shoppe in Joplin, the Read Again Book Store in Granby, and any other used book stores I can find.
The Bookmobile has long since vanished, a victim of progressing times. Let's make sure that book stores, whether new or used, don't meet that same fate.
We were given a limit of 10 books to check out for a month and I always hit that quota. It was mostly baseball biographies and fiction, though I did mix in a few mysteries.
Normally, I would take my stack of books, walk over to the store, plunk down my dime for a bottle of Doctor Pepper, then sit on the sidewalk on the west side of the building and read one of the books.
Sadly, 10 books were never enough. I usually finished them in about three days and had to wait another three and a half weeks for the Bookmobile to return.
Of course, it was easier when school was in session and I had access to the library, but school libraries were not well stocked in the '60s, and even our libraries had to rely on regular visits from the Bookmobile.
When I grew older, one of the highlights of Saturdays was going to Neosho for shopping with my mom. I was not a big shopper, but I loved the bookstore on the square. It was a wonderland of the latest issues of the Sporting News, Baseball Digest, Sport, Marvel and DC comic books, and paperbacks.
And I had a varied reading list. At school, I continued to read the sports books, but I was branching out and reading everything from Les Miserables (a wonderful book) to anything by Jane Austen, and developing a taste for books about history and politics.
As I was attending East Newton High School, my mom told me that a used book store had opened just off the Neosho square. By that time I was driving, so I began stopping at the store on a weekly basis and buying books for prices ranging from 25 cents to a dollar.
After that, Taylor's House of Books opened on the boulevard and I later added used book stores in Joplin, Pierce City, and even Brooklyn Heights to my rounds.
This week during my school's spring break, I have spent much of my time doing promotional work for my new book, Scars from the Tornado: One Year at Joplin East Middle School. I have visited various public libraries, donating copies of the book and some of my earlier books, and I have also been arranging retail outlets.
At this point, the book has no retail outlets in Neosho. The bookstore has been gone from the square for decades, and with the closing last year of Books N' Java, the city of Neosho no longer has any used book stores.
Earlier today, I had the pleasure of visiting what I believe is the only used book store in Newton County, the Read Again Book Store in Granby. Not only did I find an excellent retail outlet for Scars from the Tornado, 5:41, and Spirit of Hope, but I also reacquainted myself with an old friend, buying a paperback copy of Pride and Prejudice, as well as a history of the 1968 presidential election.
Though used bookstores have dwindled with the increased availability of books over the internet, there is still no better way to spend time than poring over both bestsellers and obsurities from the past. So I will continue to enjoy my visits to Always Buying Books and Changing Hands Book Shoppe in Joplin, the Read Again Book Store in Granby, and any other used book stores I can find.
The Bookmobile has long since vanished, a victim of progressing times. Let's make sure that book stores, whether new or used, don't meet that same fate.
