I think that writing texts, publishing texts, selling texts in a physical book store is one of the important tools for breeding this new generation.
A friend suggested that I get a job at a children's book store so I could meet kids and read books, and that turned out to be the single best bit of advice I've ever gotten.
In late 1999, I was walking down Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks with my late producing partner Sharyn Lane after a day of editing 'Sordid Lives.' We passed the Psychic Book Store and decided to go in and get a reading. We weren't believers, but what the hell? We needed a sign.
In the early '90s, I was finishing up my adolescence. I visited my local comic-book store on a weekly basis, and one week I found a book on the stands called 'Xombi,' published by Milestone Media.
The thing I love most about going to a book store is the self-help section is the biggest section because Americans know we're screwed up. We know it. But we want to get better.
When a town doesn't have a book store, it is like something is missing, and unfortunately, fewer and fewer have them.
When I was a kid... if I couldn't get a ride to the comic book store, I would walk a mile and a half each way to get the latest issues of 'Batman' and 'Spider-Man' and 'X-Men.' I could not choose one over the other.
When I was in law school, there was a used book store nearby. I picked up a Harlequin romance and read it. It was stress relieving.
I go into a book store and start having heart palpitations. I get very excited.
If you have a smartphone - and you have a smartphone - then you have a comic book store in your pocket. So you don't have to get over any social anxiety you have about entering that space.
