I’ve been drawn to philosophy books since I was a teenager. One of my favorite places in the world as a teenager in the 80’s was the local bookshop in our town’s mall. The mall itself was really old, the stores were all kinda old and sad as well but I loved The Paperback Booksmith. It was very cool. All kinds of posters all over the walls above the shelves, the coolest record bins in town, lots of punk/new wave/counter culture vibes. And I loved going through each section of the store. I was introduced a lot of my favorite authors via that bookshop. It wasn’t like the bookstores we have today. Barnes & Noble, Books A Million, etc. are all inherently commercial and what’s on their selves is dictated by the capitalistic agenda of the publishing industry. When I was younger the shelves of the bookstores were filled things selected by the store’s owner or manager. It was like it was a curated selection of books, LPs, etc. And I have to admit it was that curated selection of books and records that was part of the force that shaped my tastes and outlook as I grew up.
I don’t know why but I was always drawn to the store’s philosophy section. And they had a great variety of material from ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, up through the Age of Enlightenment, all the way up to Sartre, Existentialism, and so on. Maybe it was because it felt pretentious reading these heady books and I have to admit that I was drawn more to Sartre and Nietzsche than Socrates or Plato. I felt cool carrying around an edgy, heady philosophy book when I hung out in the local coffee shop.
I went through a fairly long period where I didn’t look at or think about philosophy but have recently felt the pull of these books again. But now that I am approaching the subject as a grown man my tastes has markedly different. I did just recently get a new book about Sartre called Existentialism is Humanism which looks pretty interesting but most of what I’m reading at the moment is Greek philosophy, particularly Stoicism. And this time not only am I understanding it much more but I am also enjoying it tremendously.