Buxton Village Books owner, Gee Gee puts in her two cents on summer reads.
Hi, My name is Gee Gee and I'm addicted to reading. And the truth is I don't really want to do anything about this problem. No I've never gotten arrested for driving while reading. I do have a friend who crashed her car when she looked down to change discs for her audio book. Slammed right into the car that was stopped in front of her. I guess that could count. I have been late for appointments because I lingered to finish that last page. I do ignore those I love while I read. I do read first thing in the morning. (Who doesn't read the back of the cereal box?) So sue me. I'm a word junkie. I mainline stories and yes I get high on them. I can't think of much of anything that makes me feel more satisfied than a truly well written piece of Southern Fiction. I also sell the stuff to feed my habit. To put it in a better light, I own an independent bookstore. Selling books is my career and it pays the mortgage. But that may just be rationalization and denial at work. It certainly isn't one of the more lucrative jobs on the market. Satisfying and worthwhile, yes. But you won't find bookselling on the Fortune 500 list. But I can't imagine doing anything else. Even in this era of sweeping and rapid changes in the world of books. I'll even admit to reading electronically. Not on a Kindle. Those belong to Amazon and while I acknowledge that they are genius at what they do I won't buy their machine until they let me as an independent bookseller sell to it. I can and do sell Ebooks to every other device though so currently I read on my laptop and am looking into smaller more mobile devices. Do you still doubt that I'm a reading junkie? Funny story then. I read in the bathtub every night. Yes, every night. No matter what time I get home. Midnight, reading. Two am, reading. So one night I'm home early and luxuriating in the tub with a book. There are stacks of books around the perimeter of my tub. Not always stable piles either. This night I had forgotten to feed my cat (neglecting those we love to pursue the fix...) He jumps up onto the side of the tub to get my attention and lands smack on a pile of not balanced books. Cat and books tumble into the water. Now, mind you my tub isn't some wimpy little shallow thing. It's 3 feet deep and holds most of a 50 gallon hot water heater. I do love my cat. Believe me. But my first, automatic reaction is to grab for the books. The cat is dog padding around the tub while I'm snatching wet books. I'm not proud of that story but I think it illustrates the depth of my problem. My current drug of choice is broad. I'm totally hooked on stories set at thebeach. Any beach. I can't get enough. Thankfully there are a lot of them out there. Here are just a few I've sampled so far.
*Here’s a footnote for those of you who like more reality in your vacation entertainment. TheDVD of the Pea Island Lifesaving Station story is now available. It’s called ”Rescue Men” and it’s a film by Allan R Smith. Smith collaborated with the authors of the book “Fire on the Beach”, David Wright and David Zoby to produce this fantastic documentary. If you’re not familiar with the Pea Island story, it’s the Lifesaving station that was located on Pea Island and had the only all black crew in the Lifesaving service. The crew members were perhaps best known for their heroic rescue in 1896 of the three-masted schooner E.S. Newman. The bravery of Captain Richard Etheridge, a former slave, and his crew went unrecognized until 1996 when the Coast Guard posthumously awarded the crew the Gold Life-Saving Medal. There is also a children’s book, “StormWarriors” by Elisa Carbone that tells the same exciting story.
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