The bookstore in my mind.

So how is possible that my little world, my life experience, could fill up a bookstore?

Well, if the terms are "being familiar with" that's a pretty broad scope.

I mean, I have read a whole lot of books in my life, but add it up and it's still a drop in the bucket.

I'm betting that I read twice as many books (or more) in the first 28 years of my life, than I have in the last 30 years of my life. Hey, one movie theater, three groddy channels, and no internet. What else is a curious person to do? I mean, I grew up in a house with so many books that they literally were the seed stock to the Bookmark.

So I read incessantly. And I read omnivorously -- that is, I'll read just about anything. I currently read lots of mysteries, and there was a time in my life when I read tons of fantasy and science fiction, but I always read a pretty wide spectrum of material. I read the books my parents were reading, and my sisters were reading. Fiction, non-fiction, kids, adults, genre, classics.

I started keeping a notebook about 30 years ago, back when I was still writing (I got the idea from Dwight Newton the local western writer), so I have a written track record there.

There was also a sort of "lost decade"; where I was mired in depression and such, and was very agoraphobic (without knowing such a thing existed) and pretty much shut-in and isolated. I'd read a book a day, back then.

But even more so, at some point I started to sort books -- knowledge, if you will -- on a ladder, fitting them in relation to each other. It wasn't a hierarchical ladder -- more of a M.C. Escher looking ladder, looping back on itself, doubling, crossing over -- but I could hear a title and author, and sort of place it. I'd read lots of book reviews of books I'll probably never read.

So when I say, this bookstore is filled mostly with books I'm "familiar" with, it's a big number.

I also tend to read single book by an author, and think, "That's pretty good. I'd read another by this author, but....there's this author over here I want to try." So I sample a lot of authors and styles, just to get a taste.

And there are authors who I don't personally read, but who I appreciate. I mean, I like that they and their books exist, even if they aren't quite my cup of tea.

So if you look at it that way, it maybe isn't so surprising that a store can be constructed around my own sort of predilections.