My queue of unread emails has expanded significantly again. There is so much to read. There is so much going on in Second Life. I have articles and emails to write. Yet it is also college break and the girls have been around. I drove Miranda to the train station this morning. She is spending some time with some friends before heading back to school. I asked my Mairead what some good father daughter time might be, and she suggested visiting a bookstore. It led to a good mixed media day.

The first store we stopped at is part of a large national chain, yet there is a foreign language section with ties to Yale and some great books. Mairead stopped there while I went and checked out some other books. I’ve been thinking of getting The Writer’s Market to see if I can find a publisher for my novel, and perhaps some other good writing gigs. Miranda is also interested in this, since she has written one novel and has some others in the works. However, I just couldn’t see spending $50 on the 2008 deluxe edition of The Writer’s Market.

When Mairead had selected her books, we headed off to another bookstore. This one was a small local bookstore. It was full of books from ancient literature to new media and from Marxist to anarcho-capitalist theories. As I looked at the new media books, I was struck by how old they seemed. I found it interesting to look at what they had to say, as I thought of what was piling up on my hard drive. At one point, Mairead asked me if I remembered who wrote Interview with the Vampire. We both remembered that the author’s first name was Anne, but we couldn’t think of the last name. If I were sitting at home, I could googled it and had the answer in a moment. As it was, the quickest way of finding out was to call Kim, who quickly reminded us that it was Anne Rice.

Cellphones and Google have changed the way we search for information. The Internet has changed our view of what is timely. This changes what you can find on the shelves of the large bookstore chains. However, there is still something very special about going to a small local bookstore, with a great collection of obscure books. Father and daughter, old media and new.