I Was a Star Trek Nerd

Lately I've been trying to do more reading than I've previously been able to. Being so busy with work and other junk all winter has really drained my motivation to read. By the time I finally am able to settle into my cozy reading chair and flick on my reading lamp, any motivation I have to dig into a good book is washed away within a couple of minutes. Instead I end up flicking the lamp back off as I plop my ass down on the couch and toss in TV on DVD to watch. It's so much more mind numbing. It's also pretty brain rotting, which is why I'm putting forth more of an effort now towards reading.

In going through some of my books, namely some that I ended up listing on paperbackswap, I dug through my Star Trek book collection. I've ended up listing most of them for trade, but in doing so, I remember when I was in middle school and high school and totally obsessed with Star Trek. Every Sunday morning I'd watch the episodes of Star Trek that I'd taped the night before. I didn't get into the original series all that much but The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine were aces.

Of course, being a nerd in all senses of the word in my youth, I totally bought into the entire Star Trek universe and everything that came with it. Not only did I watch the TV shows, I collected the action figures, bought any memorabilia I could, played the few Star Trek video games that were out for computer, and read every Star Trek book I could get my hands on.

At the time, new paperback books were considered expensive to both me and my parents. Thankfully, my mom visited a craft store in Austin, MN that was also a used book shop. The place was called Eileen's Books and Things and it was a holy mecca on my continued quest for more and more Star Trek books. Eileen had a group of friends who all read Star Trek books and when they'd all finished reading a particular book, she'd save it for me. Since they were used books, they cost a fraction of new books and my mom let me line my book shelves with every Star Trek book I could get my hands on.

I'm pretty sure I read a few too many adventures of Kirk, Picard, and their associated crews. Oh, for some reason I only enjoyed reading books that chronicled the adventures of the original and next generation crews, especially adventures of the original crew because they could do so much more with the written word than was capable when the show was made way back in the day.

Thinking back to those days where I was so enamored with Star Trek books (and reading in general), I can't help but miss it and wonder where that continual craving to dig into books has went. I still love to read and my bookshelves are still overflowing with stuff I haven't gotten around to yet, but my time for reading just seems to have disappeared. No longer do I spend a couple of hours a day paging through my latest favorite novel.

I suppose that I can keep plugging slowly away at my current collection and in 40 years or so when I retire I can spend my final years living other people's lives through the magic of the written word. But I really don't want to wait until then...