Ah the oldie times before the internet piracy, of when I used to constantly go to the library and passionately consume sci-fi and fantasy books. Back when I still read in my native language instead of english. But now I buy some books on bookdepository, because they ship for free to my part of the world, and pirate the whole lot of them, yeah I’m not proud of it but if I can’t put it on my shelve then I’m not buying it. Even though I have e-reader I’m still old fashioned like that and prefer paper books.

Anyway finding new books is best accomplished on the internet. I love GoodReads and it’s the only social network I use. Then there’s tvtropes, or even your blog – my all time favorite House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds was discovered here on your blog, so thanks for that. There’s simply no alternative to the wild lands of the internet, if you want something new then only internet can provide.

back in my days, thos local small record stores weren’t how they are beeing described nowadays. Of course you could go there and start looking for “good” music, but that wasn’t how it worked most of the time. Of course the shopowner knew his/her way around with music, but why should he share exactly YOUR taste? In most cases he just didn’t.
Then there were a lot students or the likes who worked part time there, one of those might share your taste, but would you really go and ask everyone about it? Why not simply ask your friends what you should listen to, why ask someone you don’t even know.
Even in the best case those shops created some pretty elitist flair.

What i was far mor into, were libraries… i spent every week at least half an hour there, searching for new books (or games/movies/music, they had that too where i come from) and just take anything promissing home with me. Books were free, cd/mc/video was 0,50DM a week (ca. 0,25€ per Week), so even as pupil i could afford as much as i could consume.
That kept carrying 4-5 Books from/to library every week for some years until i’ve read most fantasy/scifi-things they had.

There’s a small, independent record store near me that I cannot believe is still operating here in 2013. I never see anyone in there, though I gather they have a pretty good selection of vinyl and obscure stuff.

Finding Greg Egan books can be challenging even on Amazon. It took me a while to find a cheap (less than $10) copy. The thing with Egan is, even when he publishes something new, his brand of Ultra-Hard SF is already a pretty small niche, so I get the impression that his print runs are rather small.

In terms of physical media, sometimes that’s all that’s available. I still get discs from Netflix because when I go on a tear through some obscure sub-genre (Italian Giallos! German Krimis! Even non-obscure Silent Films!), they are almost never available on any streaming service at all (even for purchase). I did just pick up a few 4TB drives and will convert my old collection of DVDs, but the cinephile in me needs the breadth afforded by physical media. I’d give it up in a heartbeat if there was anything approaching a comprehensive selection on streaming.

(Thanks for the pointer:)

@ Victoria:

Very good point. I was born in Warsaw and I actually can relate to this. That said, living in a big city made a bit of a difference as we did have access to some better resources. I remember there were few hole-in-the-wall hobby stores that sold RPG and tabletop stuff where you could sometimes get your hands on untranslated, imported books. We also had a pretty established ad vocal SF/Fantasy literary community with magazines such as Fantastyka which printed short stories and book reviews. The review section, editorials and the letters to the editor section were literally where I would find out about interesting books to read back in those days.

@ Chris Wellons:

Actually, it’s kinda funny but physical media is actually making a small comeback now. At least here in Jersey suburbia land there isn’t a grocery store or a supermarket that doesn’t have a Red Box or similar DVD vending machine. And they are all profitable it seems because I see people constantly using them.

I haven’t actually used a DVD/BlueRay in years. I don’t even have a DVD player connected to my TV at the moment, but a lot of people find these boxes to be the easiest and most affordable way to get the latest movies.

Of course one of the primary reasons why these boxes are so popular is that many Hollywood studios have pulled their entire catalogs from streaming platforms like Netflix and Hulu. The sad truth is that if you want to watch a newly released movie your options today are:

1. Physical disks via Redbox or Snail Mail Netflix
2. Buy it on iTunes for 2x DVD price with super DRM (if available, but probably not because piracy)
3. One of seven billion torrent sites or pirate streaming sites on interweb

@ crackofdusk:

Oh, no. I wouldn’t dare unleashing my terrible taste in music on the internet. :P

It’s like I can usually tell “good” music performed by a talented artist from “terrible” music performed by a talentless hack who couldn’t hit a single note without autotune but damn it if some of that garbage isn’t catchy. I guess I’m just not as passionate about music I guess. When I read a bad book, play a bad video game or watch a bad movie and be bored, angry or nauseated by it and have opinions I’d like to share. On the other hand I can listen to the same silly song about “being in the club” by the current pop star of the minute for the 257’th time on the radio, realize I somehow know the lyrics by heart already even though they make no logical sense whatsoever and then shrug and hum along with it.

I guess what I’m saying is that I typically don’t have anything interesting to say about music other than “hey, that song is catchy” or “wow, those lyrics are terrible” or something like that.

Speaking of record stores, how come you never talk about music? Is it something you enjoy less than books, movies or games?

My wife and I stopped by a local mall this past weekend where we hadn’t been in some months. One of the first things I noticed was that the huge f.y.e. store had closed (an old picture I found online). The only surprising part about it for me was how long it took to happen. They made it all the way to 2013.

On previous visits, I had always wondered who still bought physical discs in the stores. Since all I care about is the digital media on the disc, and I’m unlikely to actually access that content in real time on the disk itself (ripping/copying it onto other media before consuming), the disc just seems like extra junk I’d have to worry about.

As I am remembering the good ol’ days, there were no books sold openly when I got into SF/Fantasy. I was about 12, and the books I got were either hand-made copies or books borrowed from library (the timeframe is early days of independent Ukraine). I got on good terms with the librarian in my school library and she always let me know when something new was available. That’s how I read most of Howard’s Conan and Lovecraft and Tolkien for that matter. She never got into books herself, but she wasn’t snide either. Then suddenly the books were sold everywhere and the guys who sold them actually knew their shit because they were the ones who ordered them. So they always knew that the new book in series was coming next week and stuff like that. It was all ‘unprofessional’ – no book stores per se, just small kiosks that they could afford. But it was good – many books were discovered like that for me. There was a pen-pal book club published in one of book series – I wrote a letter to some guy whose letter was published, and he wrote me back (pen and paper, mind you) and I am very grateful to that guy till this day because he told me of Glen Cook and several other authors that I have never heard about.

And then in 1998 my parents gave me my first computer and 33.6 modem :) and the world has finally shown me its colors. A couple of years since then and I wasn’t buying books anymore. I started reading in English, and I pirated the shit out of Internet :) I haven’t read so much in whole my life as in those years. Cyberpunk, fantasy, SF, modern prose, you name it. I re-read all my favorites in English and found out they were quite different.

Sorry for the long tirade. What I wanted to say is I never discovered serendipity fully before I went online. These days I see a term in a book (which I can afford to buy from Appstore or Amazon :) ) and I can research it immediately. I often find myself reading something so far from where I’ve started that I can only imagine the path that led me there because I lived through it.