TOD
I developed a passion for paperbacks, primarily movie and other tie-ins, around the time we moved from Ohio to Florida when I was around age ten. What started it might have been my dad bringing home "More Stories From the Twilight Zone" which he'd seen at a supermarket. It blew me away. I'd had no idea any such wonderful thing existed, let alone for my single favorite show. We had all loved the first season and the show was well into season two at the time. I loved that thing to death, reading it over and over, obsessing over prose description of scenes and spoken lines.
I later caught up with the first volume by having a local paperback dealer order me a copy. By then, we'd moved to within walking distance of our little downtown where there was a large newsstand that dealt not only in all manner of periodicals, including comics, but was a sizable paperback store in its own right. It became a regular hangout for me as I discovered one wonderful horror movie or other genre tie-in after another, and many were acquired over the next few years. Another source for such treasures was drugstore and supermarket paperback racks. I still recall a few specific titles and exactly where I found them in my early teens. I've retained a considerable number of those, and while there are some I could probably dump, many are precious, not only for their content but for their striking design.
As a side note, another tip of the hat I must give to Clark's News (they still exist, at least in name) is my love for great newsstands. I don't recall any from my Cleveland years, but upon moving to Hollywood I quickly found the Las Palmas and Cahuenga ones. Later there were others (I'm thinking S. Robertson or La Cienega?) (Van Nuys Blvd.?) and it always felt somehow magical to stop and kill an hour browsing, and of course I never left one empty handed.
