Quote:
Originally Posted by desertgrandma
My tastes are not as lofty as yours, R,  so when I go and there, and look for a particular book by Stephen King, or Jennifer Chiaverini, or any well known author, I expect to find it on the shelves. |
While I appreciate the elevation (it is so much fun to look down on humankind
), I wouldn't call my tastes "lofty"; perhaps esoteric or odd, but not lofty.
I find that I am interested in many different areas that are semi-mainstream, that is, they are mainstream but whereas someone might be satisfied with a broad overview of the Civil War, I like to supplement that broad view with narrowly focused revelations.
I also like to read opposing viewpoints. For example, I read both Hannah Arendt's
Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil and David Cesarani's
Becoming Eichmann.
I also like to get other perspectives. As most Americans of my generation, I was taught history from a eurocentric perspective. Muslim culture was rarely mentioned, except for Moorish Spain, and that probably took up 15 minutes of my schooling. Consequently, I buy books like Tamim Ansary's
Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes, Stewart Gordon's
When Asia was the World, Henry Aubin's
The Rescue of Jerusalem: The Alliance of Hebrews and Africans in 701 BC, and Miriam Bodian's
Dying in the Law of Moses: Crypto-Jewish Martyrdom in the Iberian World and Jonathan Decter's
Iberian Jewish Literature: Between al-Andalus and Christian Europe.
Most Americans of my generation read the Tennyson poem Charge of the Light Brigade (I think that's the correct title) in school. It is the kind of poem that most kids like. But I always wondered what the true story was and so I bought Terry Brighton's
Hell Riders: The True Story of the Charge of the Light Brigade.
Although a few of these books were available on the shelf at my local B&N and I came across them through browsing, most I discovered through ads, footnotes and bibliographies in other books, and in places like the
New York Review of Books. B&N has made it easy for me to indulge my curiosity by special ordering the books and letting me peruse them wiothout obligation.
Books are my big weakness. I could have retired already if I had saved the money I have spent at my local B&N (or at least been closer to retirement).