I went to half-price books at lunch. I got several old Robert Heinlein paperbacks. I'm currently enthralled in Stranger in a Strange Land. It takes me back to 6th grade when I bought "Somewhere in Time" by Iron Maiden with the song, "Stranger in a..." on it. Never let it be said that heavy metal isn't educational. Maiden is the same band that had me reading Rime of the Ancient Mariner in middle school. You could do a lot worse.

In a funny coincidence, I found my import-only cassete single for "Stranger..." the other day. I bought it by saving up my allowlance for who knows how long and trucking it over to the Hasting's in the Temple Mall. It was in the import section where I was buying my music almost exclusively by 8th grade. I don't think it was actually all imports but all the weird metal and punk stuff got stuck in there - maybe more of an independent label section. My biggest finds out of that section were some Misfits tapes and a Diamondhead collection. Both inspired by Metallica's Garage Day's Re-Revisited (come to think of it, I got the original Garage Day Revisted there also - also known as the Creeping Death cassette single.)

As my musical choices swang from metal to punk I was able to keep shopping in the same section. God bless mall music chain stores and the one or two smart employees that always seem to crop up in them. Without them, kids unlucky enough to grow up in small towns wouldn't ever get the chance to buy interesting music. As an interesting side note - Wal-Mart always carried all the Fugazi records. That was so nice of them.