Waldenbooks

My mother used to take me to the Nanuet Mall, where she would go shopping and frequently I would spend time at a little bookstore called Waldenbooks. There I discovered many writers, the most significant of which was Friedrich Nietzsche. There I purchased The Birth of Tragedy, the Gay Science (which was very important to me), Beyond Good and Evil and The Will to Power. Seeing that last book I named, WTP, was like witnessing a comet to me. I mean to say it stunned me and I felt privileged to be able to buy it. I still have it, it's in a bag in my living room right now. Like Henry Miller says, these books were alive and they spoke to me. I guess this requires more writing about the libraries I used to frequent when I was growing up, and about how I discovered Dostoeyvsky at the Finkelstein library in Suffern NY. I first read his story The Eternal Husband based on Miller's recommendation and then purchased Notes from Underground which I read at 16 and changed my life. I used to discuss it with Brian Smith. Anyhow, back to Nietzsche, one book I never liked was Thus Spake Zarathustra, perhaps I was afraid of it. It's a little too shocking philosophically and a little too difficult to accept.