Books

A-holes In The Stacks

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A-holes In The Stacks

I love used bookstores, odd bookstores, and odd used bookstores. If you’ve read any of my writings, you know this. If not, well, hello, you must be new here – I’m Xenofact and I like bookstores.

One of the best thing about a good bookstore – and sometimes even more so a used one – is the amount of authors you encounter. Looking for one book leads to another, to another, and to another – often ones you didn’t expect to look for. A detour down a mysterious set of shelves can take you to a wonderland of discoveries. Then of course there’s whatever the store stocks that fits the tastes of the proprietors, another peek into the larger world.

Bookstores, the really good ones, are places of discovery. Even if you enter with a plan, you usually leave with something else.

However, you’ll also encounter works by authors that are, let’s be honest, a-holes. I’m not talking “oh they’re jerks,” I’m talking grifters, conspiritualists, abusive cult leaders, and so on. Since I usually haunt religion, philosophy, and science areas I probably see a lot more of this.

(It’s probably good I don’t go to the business section after these or I’d just end up in the fetal position.)

There’s something incredibly depressing to see a giant book by some grifting schemer who has only avoided jail as not enough of their cult has turned on him. It’s disturbing to see books by people replacing vaccines with quantum woo next to books on actual healthy practices. A bookstore, as thrilling as it is, can be quite depressing when you look at specific stock and know “someone is selling this, someone wants to buy this.”

But that’s the world, isn’t it? There are people out there who are exploitative – and some of them write books. Thank goodness there’s many good authors, past and present, writing actual, helpful stuff.

But that’s also discovery, what those stores allow. There’s a chance for surprise, for something new, even if you enter planning to get a specific book. Sometimes discovery is discovering something bad.

I suppose this is a time to remind ourselves to buy, read, promote, and give the good books, the ones that really help others out. There’s little use being impotently on the a-holes, we can just expose people to the good stuff.

And maybe when the a-holes get you down, enjoy the good stuff.

– Xenofact

The Tool

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An acquaintance of mine recently got me a copy of the Enchiridion, containing recorded teachings of the stoic philosopher Epictetus.  As I have no acquaintance with his works, I expect it to be informative – but I want to talk about the delight I take in the book’s name.

As I understand it (between the book and quick research), “enchiridion” translates roughly as “a thing in the hand” or “something you hold in one hand.”  It usually applies to two things – a manual or a dagger.

When referring to a book, it implies a manual, a concise guide – something small enough to hold with one hand while you read it.  That take on the word reminds me of how many books I like are essentially manuals.  The Tao Te Ching, The Secret of the Golden Flower, and of course many small publications in my library.  “A useful thing that fits in one hand” gives the feeling of conciseness, focus, and a lack of epehemra.

Enchiridion also means a one-handed dagger or sword – a term I was not familiar with and have mostly seen used in games if at all.  It’s also an understandable use of the term – a weapon that fits in one hand.

Both takes put me in mind of a single word – tool.  Either use of the term Enchiridion implies something simple, focused, and useful.

This reminded me of how books, pamphlets, and zines can be made so they’re tools.  Focused, precise, useful – and not over large.  A book can overstay it’s welcome, or one book is best as several.  A good manual, an Enchiridion if you will, should be something that does the job, just like the term meant a book that fit in one hand (before tablets, that’s cheating).

It’s OK to write something small.  One of Epictetus’ students did, and it’s survived to this day, so I can sit here and ruminate on the very name it holds

Go write yourself your own Enchiridion, your own special tool for people.

– Xenofact