New and old

So a while ago I ordered a pile of books from overseas to fill the void of words inside. I ended up with a 50-50 split of fiction and non-fiction, and I'm up to my last fiction book. If I manage to read it by the end of next week (though I really have a ton to do) I'll have read 5 books in 4 weeks. Seriously, I haven't done that in ages. And then I do mean ages. Without checking, I think Zelazny was still alive back then, and Peter Hamilton had only one or two titles to his name.

I was apprehensive about the experiment, because normally my MO for buying books was pretty much: I like his/her writing, so whatever he/she touches I buy and read. New stuff = bad stuff, unless I can ... smell it. Feel it. Read it.
But then my favorites all died, if they weren't dead already, and this made me sad. But then there were treasures found in the vault, books published postmortem, and I was happy again. For a little while. A very short while.

The idea of buying only what you know is not fully my own choice, because see, if you read English in a non-native English country, you'll find your choices are limited anyhow. Back in the days the only way to find SF/F in English was by:

a) browsing secondhand shops
This exposes you to lots and lots of different things (authors, genres, styles,...). Back in the days a copy would cost you the equivalent of 50 eurocent to 1 euro, which was the price of a beer! If that's the cost, the book you buy doesn't even have to be particularly good. If it turns out the story sucks or the style is not you or non-existent, you can use it to prop up your desk, give it away or toss it in the recycling bin and not cringe or feel guilty for wasting money.
But secondhand bookshops have gone the way of regular bookshops: unless part of a chain, most of them had to fold. And that means the lowest you can get a decent copy for is 4 euro ('decent' meaning: still glued together and cover not eaten by someone's dog), and it has nothing to do with a beer now costing 2. These4 euro will buy you a book no one really likes because they have twenty copies who were owned privately (not remaindered, because different wear and tear, names scribbled inside,...) Obviously 4 euro will buy you a book you'll want to toss in the recycling bin. So let's not.
I get to know some authors that way, who were not available in the library, English or translated: Alfred Bester, Colin Kapp, and Tim Powers (who was too new).

b) taking a train to Brussels (which you don't do every day or week) and browse W.H.Smith and Sterling, and sometimes the small selection at Fnac. But WHS has become Waterstones and now carries a less ... adventurous range of SF/F. Sterling seems to do the job with more heart but alas far less room than Waterstones (SF/F/H all crammed together). Fnac has a smaller selection of what you'll find in Waterstones. These days, you always see the same books, whether in Fnac, Sterling or Waterstones. Duh, of course, best-sellers are best-sellers and will be in your face. But it's more... Only big sellers. Only big houses. Only no risk. It makes the shopping-for-books experience boring and bland.
We had a bit of thrill when the American Book Center opened a store in the city where I live. They were a godsend! No more train to Brussels, and they had a great selection of SF/F, not just the frontlists ofthe big houses, and also a great collection of secondhand books. But alas, they had to fold after a few years, so buying books became boring again.

So, how do you get to know new stuff then? With all my favorites dead or silent, I was in urgent need of new blood. And it was not because there was nothing out there. A trip to the UK always manages to put something new before the hubby and I, but then, oversea trips are even less common than going to Brussels for the sole purpose of shopping. And covers do matter, because between a series of all-polished-to-look-like-the-next-one covers the hubby lifted Abercrombie's The Blade Itself from the shelf. I would probably have done the same, if it hadn't been like 4 shelves over my head. But we need more. Mooooorrre, I say!

So I was becoming aware of another fact: I've never bought a book on a review alone. Half the time I can't read more then a paragraph of review anyway. I've never went to a movie based on a (printed) review alone either. I have a stubborn streak like that, always want to make up my own mind. I read the dazzling praise on the blurb, and my inner-reading voice trails off into " and blablablabla". I don't trust other people I guess.
More of the same problem: there are many authors I have not read, because everybody keeps telling me that his books are amazing and I "must simply read them! You'll love his books to bits!"
Inner-voice: "Must? Must I now? We'll see about that!" and then the books don't get read. Iain Banks used to be there, but one day everybody just shut up about him, and he was so kind to leave enough time between two titles for me to find the peace of mind to actually start reading.
It's a weird problem, isn't it? This is the main reason why LOTR was not read until after the movies. The ice was broken after the first movie, but I held off reading so I could keep my perspective on the movies. After all, I was the only one of our rpg-group that hadn't, and as long as the trilogy was unwinding on screen, we had interesting discussions on what worked or not. I mean, everybody had almost endless gripes about this interpretation, that character too prominent or not present. I, as non-LOTR infected, had only one moment where Jackson failed utterly and unforgivably, and that's the great battle: you have your well trained, daring, nimble cavalry and you send them into a head-on collision with giga-elephantors? Suicide, anyone?
Oh, now I got side-trackede.
Anyways, the books I sent for through the internet were chosen solely on samples, either through Amazon, the publisher's or the author's website. And it worked, and I still have a list for a new order.! New favorites added. Hopefully enough to keep me from pining for mooooooorrre! And hopefully those new favorites will keep doing what they're doing, because sometimes that too is the sucky part of trying something new. Sometimes great new things you like, just vanish into nothing.


Epilogue:
Since I've worked for a book distributor, I've learned about two very important persons in the book publishing business that usually aren't mentioned in the blogs, but that I know are immensely important to getting a book on the shelf:

1) the middleman, being either a distributor's or the publishing house's own salesperson. This is the person who gets to talk the shop owner or 'chef de rayon' (as they say in French; the person who does the buying for a certain range/category, Wikipedia won't help me translate) to actually put your title on the to-buy list. Especially if you're from a smaller publisher, who cannot offer those great percentages and total return policies the big houses can.

2) well, the Chef de Rayon himself, of course, because most bookshops are too big for just one human to handle. They come in all fragrances, these people, and it is very important to have someone who is interested. Back in the days, it must have been a really good guy managing the SF/F list for the Fnac, because they had a very broad range of publishers and some quirky stuff too. It's where Sterling still manages to make a slight difference.