CURING DEPRESSION QUICKLY

I subscribe to PCWorld.com. For every 100 words they print, I understand about 20 of them. The headlines to their articles are so very enticing – like yesterday’s article “Technology We’ll Miss When It’s Gone.” Oh no, I thought. What now? Reading their article is like wearing a haircloth shirt – there may be some value to it but darned if I can figure out much of what it is. Nevertheless, these things, whether you know what they are or not (I am addressing us older people now) MP3 players, optical drives, the mouse, dumb phones, digital cameras, Microsoft Windows, MySpace, pay phones, packaged media (CDs, DVDs) vs. downloads, and good manners are all scheduled to be things of the past, and with the 20% that I understood, I found myself getting seriously depressed. NOT MY MOUSE, PLEASE!

My intent originally was to share all this with you, but not wanting to lay depression on my readers, I decided instead to share something that really makes me happy. And that is the website called Abebooks.com. It is a site that acts like a broker for independent used bookstores all over the world. I am always wanting or needing a book that I no longer can find anywhere. And instead of driving to every used bookstore in town, I simply tell Abebooks.com what I want and almost instantly, voila! I see on my screen a list of bookstores which have that book and all the details about it and the vendor.

Now I am not looking for books like a collector of old books does, but I’ll tell you what I’ve picked from their offerings. I wanted a book that was referenced in an article I read about the meteor shower of 1833. The book was published in 1998 in England, published by Cambridge Press and entitled “The Heavens on Fire.” For $7.00 plus shipping I got a book that had been in the DeKalb (Illinois) County Public Library and later had been de-accessed. It obviously hadn’t been used much. I used the book to learn all about what it was that my great-great grandmother had seen.

I used Abebooks to find a copy of a book called “Goodnight Children, Everywhere: Voices of Evacuees” about the little kids in London who were sent to the countryside to live with other families during the Second World War. It was published very recently in England. I just learned a friend of mine was one of those kids, and I wanted to know more. This book was a real eye-opener.

I used Abebooks to find a copy of Ken Starr’s new book “Golden Dreams: California in an Age of Abundance, 1950-1963.” Yes, I could have found it at B&N or Amazon, but the price was within my budget at Abebooks.com, enabling me to purchase it instead of just borrowing and re-borrowing it through the library systems.

And yesterday I just ordered another book. A year or so ago a beautiful new coffeetable-type book about Tony Duquette, a California artist and interior designer, was published that sold for $75.00. It’s now selling at about $50. In 1980 Duquette mounted an exhibit of Angels that celebrated Los Angeles. Jerry and I went, and I was so enthralled by what I saw that I went back for a second time, insisting that my mother needed to see it too. She was not very healthy at that time and she hadn’t been able to get out much, certainly not to Los Angeles, so I wanted her to see this really amazing display. We took it very slowly, and she loved it as much as I did.

Yesterday I decided to see via Abebooks if one of these big fancy books had come down in price to fit my pocketbook. I knew the book encompassed much more than just his Angel exhibit, but the angels were what I wanted it for. Abebooks let me know that for a mere $16.00, which included shipping charges, they could supply a book specifically about the Angel Exhibit – with color illustrations. Needless to say I bought it. And got undepressed really fast!

So in spite of what PCWorld said that causes me to be distressed (DON’T TAKE MY MOUSE, PLEASE!) I now know that a romp around Abebooks.com is good for what ails me. If you haven’t had a reason to look for an old book you are interested in, do yourself a favor and snoop around on their website. You never will know what you might find that will brighten your day in an very affordable way!