I've emailed a few authors over the years. Most only once, one fellow twice. You have to be a little patient, these folks have other things to do than clear their email backlog every few hours, but I almost always get a reply within a week, and the replies have always been positive.

Only once did I fail to get a gracious reply, and I feel that was my fault. A favorite author has about 50 short stories spread across half a dozen print collections, all but one decades out of print. I suggested he put together some master collection in ebook form to make it easier for fans to collect all of the stories. He didn't reply.

I feel I should have known better, because on his website he kind of vaguely but firmly mentions he is not interested in revisiting old work and updating it. I was disappointed, but not surprised when he ignored the suggestion and sent no reply.

I am oddly disappointed clicking on this joke did not get me Rick-rolled.

I have lived for 12 years in a rural area with no decent bookstore. I've gotten dependent on reddit for leads, and the Internet for purchases.

But when I was younger, yeah, I used to cruise bookstores in person. Nothing was as good a draw as new title by a favorite author, but a good cover was often what drew me to try an unknown. Mind you in those days I was almost exclusively a reader of science fiction, and so many sci-fi covers are laughably terrible good ones stand out.

It's true, in the U.S. everybody and his dog do have a gun.

'Merican BBQ is the best BBQ because it tastes like freedom and gun oil.

Lois McMaster Bujold is great. Start with The Warrior's Apprentice (sci-fi) or The Curse of Chalion (fantasy).

I use Thriftbooks all the time, but they are really oriented to the USA. It appears they do ship to Belgium but I don't know what they would charge. I doubt they have a good selection of books in any language but English. It shouldn't be difficult to just visit their site, put a book in your cart, and go through the order process until they list shipping charges and taxes. It is not difficult to cancel an order before finalizing it if you don't like the numbers.

Saves me the embarrassment of asking where something is only to find I'm standing next to it. Dude is a champ.

There are other regular season games referred to as bowl games, usually due to some traditional rivalry. For instance the annual Alabama/Auburn game is called the Iron Bowl.