It is the season for giving.
Well this is it, the last blog of the year. No pressure though, it’s really just another one in a pretty decent sized list of them. After reading Bills' post from yesterday it got me thinking about the Gothic. In specific Bill touched upon the Gothic being like a family. I have always joked about Laura being my sister and Kathy being the cool aunt whose house you wanted to go to but now I think there’s a touch of truth to it. The feelings I have for the people I work with are stronger than those I have for friends, and it’s different than being someone’s best friend. It’s hard to put a finger on it. In reality I spend at least 8 hours a day here and 7 of those are with these people. It would be hard for even the most unwilling person to not form a bond of some sort.
So as the Gothic has become my extended family, I thought I might gift them via this blog with some things I would give them if they existed yet, so step with me for a second into the future when things are vastly different. I think I’ll do this via seniority:
Laura: Stephen Fry in America (she’s been waiting for this forever), all the VH1 reality shows made from 2009 forward on BluRay DVD, a BluRay DVD player, a digital cable tuner enhancer (so she can finally get her DVR from Time Warner for all the reality shows I don’t gift her), and finally soundproofing for her walls (so the neighbors will stop waking her up in the middle of the night)
Kathy: Free Range Knitter and It Itches (two books about one of her favorite hobbies), (I was going to include a book here but man she has enough books to read so instead) free time to read, Febreze for Cars (she knows what I mean), the complete Boston Legal on DVD (so good), a robot shredder to filter it’s way through the massive amount of papers on her desk and shred the unnecessary ones.
Bill: a functioning mailing list, Then We Came to the End (if he hasn’t read it already, right up his alley), (speaking of alleys) that wicked cool bowling ball that Bill Murray uses in Kingpin (two words: awesome), a pair of earphones that muffle out the inane drubbing of student employees talking about parties and such, a big book of really hard crosswords (this guy plows through the easy ones around here)
Our Customers: a new layout that is more organized and easier for you to find the book you’re after in that subject, the end of construction (thanks for hanging in there with us), a wonderful sitting area that is both comfy and functional, lots of free time to read and enjoy your favorite authors brand new story or idea.
I could list our student employees here as well but the list would be too long to read then (if it’s not already). Our students are like my cousins they come over and visit we have a great time and they go home (and we probably annoy Aunt Kathy somewhere in there).
In closing, thanks for a wonderful 2008; you make working here worth getting out of bed for. See you in ’09.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Monday, December 22, 2008
Last List of the Year (I promise)
Well, it’s my last post of the year. We’re shutting down for the winter break after tomorrow, and we’ll be closed until the 4th while we do some renovating. No, we’re not getting that tiki bar I’ve been promising you all. That’s going to have to wait until the summer break. Instead we’re going to rearrange the front of the store to give us more space to display our wares. Wares, in this case, means really cool books and stuff.
So I won’t be writing again for a little while. I don’t know exactly why, but this fact ratchets up the pressure somewhat. Last post of ’08? Better make it good, Verner. (Perhaps Arthur's having said those exact words to me early this morning has something to do with my minor freak-out at sitting down to knock this post out. Thanks, Arthur.)
Like a lot of you, I’d imagine, I’ve spent the last week or so shopping for presents for the people closest to me. I like to give presents. I do it as much for myself as for the intended recipients. It makes me feel good. Oddly, the fact that I work in a bookstore makes me somewhat hesitant to give books as presents. I don’t want my friends and family to feel that I simply grabbed the nearest book off the shelf on my way out the door. (For the record, though, this is exactly what I do, with mixed results. Giving one’s elderly aunt a copy of I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell is not to be recommended, I can promise you.)
Still, I do always end up giving at least one book to most of my family members. Maybe I’m projecting –I certainly like to receive books as presents; hint, hint—but giving someone a book feels like a commitment to an ongoing conversation. Here, you’re saying, I’m giving you this thing, and you can use this thing to help you make new thoughts, and then we can talk about those thoughts.
So anyway, I’ve been shopping for presents, and it’s had me thinking about friends and family and books, and what I guess I’m getting around to (finally) is that the dénouement of this year has brought about my joining what is basically a family here at the Gothic. A good bookstore finds its staff mingling with its regular customers in a way that is very much like a family. Most often we get along; sometimes we scrap it out a bit, and we’d all be a little bit lost without each other.
Please, please don’t think that I’m fixing to buy all of you presents, Gothic Shoppers. I’m really far too cheap for that. (Nor you, fellow Gothickers; most of you owe me ten bucks already as a result of that SIBA Book Awards betting pool we had going there for a while). But I am thinking about you all as we close out the year.
(WARNING: LIST APPROACHING)
In fact, I think I’m going to close this sucker out with a list of some, though not all, of my favorite bookselling moments since meeting you all:
Talking translation and Junot Diaz with Claudia.
Swapping pulp fiction favorites with Brian and learning from him about the great Ted Lewis, whose books sorely need reprinting. (Get on it, Serpent's Tail!)
Finding that one good “book on books” gift for Stu.
Listening to Barry wax eloquent on the silliness of words that can be mentioned neither on television nor on this Blog.
Betting with Kathy over whether we’d sell our copy of The Hemingses of Monticello. (We did; though I won’t tell you how each of us bet. We’ve got another bet going on a forthcoming Dylan book.)
Talking graphic novels and holiday gifts with a couple of totally normal-seeming customers, only to find out that they were both in the killer band Veronique Diabolique (check these guys out if you haven’t already).
Selling two copies of Stanford’s Battlefield within a week of finally getting it into the store, with each customer having heard of the book from Duke’s own Tony Tost. (Nice one, Tony)
Talking eyeglasses and jazz books with Dr. Carter.
Competing with my fellow Gothickers over who could sell more “Staff Picks” books. (Laura’s in the lead, in case you’re curious.)
Watching Arthur and one of our regular customers, Annie, work themselves into a frenzy over the collected oeuvre of Garth Nix.
Seeing the look on Lt. Awesome’s face when he told me that he’d sold a copy of Lonesome Dove. (Please, please come buy more copies; it will make him happy.)
Watching Sara pick out kids’ books with the eye of a true connoisseur.
Selling a copy of The Launching of Duke University to the proud father of an enrolling freshman.
And, of course, launching this blog. It’s been a pleasure posting with you guys. Thanks to all of you –customers and booksellers alike—for making me feel welcome here. Happy New Year to all of you.
So I won’t be writing again for a little while. I don’t know exactly why, but this fact ratchets up the pressure somewhat. Last post of ’08? Better make it good, Verner. (Perhaps Arthur's having said those exact words to me early this morning has something to do with my minor freak-out at sitting down to knock this post out. Thanks, Arthur.)
Like a lot of you, I’d imagine, I’ve spent the last week or so shopping for presents for the people closest to me. I like to give presents. I do it as much for myself as for the intended recipients. It makes me feel good. Oddly, the fact that I work in a bookstore makes me somewhat hesitant to give books as presents. I don’t want my friends and family to feel that I simply grabbed the nearest book off the shelf on my way out the door. (For the record, though, this is exactly what I do, with mixed results. Giving one’s elderly aunt a copy of I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell is not to be recommended, I can promise you.)
Still, I do always end up giving at least one book to most of my family members. Maybe I’m projecting –I certainly like to receive books as presents; hint, hint—but giving someone a book feels like a commitment to an ongoing conversation. Here, you’re saying, I’m giving you this thing, and you can use this thing to help you make new thoughts, and then we can talk about those thoughts.
So anyway, I’ve been shopping for presents, and it’s had me thinking about friends and family and books, and what I guess I’m getting around to (finally) is that the dénouement of this year has brought about my joining what is basically a family here at the Gothic. A good bookstore finds its staff mingling with its regular customers in a way that is very much like a family. Most often we get along; sometimes we scrap it out a bit, and we’d all be a little bit lost without each other.
Please, please don’t think that I’m fixing to buy all of you presents, Gothic Shoppers. I’m really far too cheap for that. (Nor you, fellow Gothickers; most of you owe me ten bucks already as a result of that SIBA Book Awards betting pool we had going there for a while). But I am thinking about you all as we close out the year.
(WARNING: LIST APPROACHING)
In fact, I think I’m going to close this sucker out with a list of some, though not all, of my favorite bookselling moments since meeting you all:
Talking translation and Junot Diaz with Claudia.
Swapping pulp fiction favorites with Brian and learning from him about the great Ted Lewis, whose books sorely need reprinting. (Get on it, Serpent's Tail!)
Finding that one good “book on books” gift for Stu.
Listening to Barry wax eloquent on the silliness of words that can be mentioned neither on television nor on this Blog.
Betting with Kathy over whether we’d sell our copy of The Hemingses of Monticello. (We did; though I won’t tell you how each of us bet. We’ve got another bet going on a forthcoming Dylan book.)
Talking graphic novels and holiday gifts with a couple of totally normal-seeming customers, only to find out that they were both in the killer band Veronique Diabolique (check these guys out if you haven’t already).
Selling two copies of Stanford’s Battlefield within a week of finally getting it into the store, with each customer having heard of the book from Duke’s own Tony Tost. (Nice one, Tony)
Talking eyeglasses and jazz books with Dr. Carter.
Competing with my fellow Gothickers over who could sell more “Staff Picks” books. (Laura’s in the lead, in case you’re curious.)
Watching Arthur and one of our regular customers, Annie, work themselves into a frenzy over the collected oeuvre of Garth Nix.
Seeing the look on Lt. Awesome’s face when he told me that he’d sold a copy of Lonesome Dove. (Please, please come buy more copies; it will make him happy.)
Watching Sara pick out kids’ books with the eye of a true connoisseur.
Selling a copy of The Launching of Duke University to the proud father of an enrolling freshman.
And, of course, launching this blog. It’s been a pleasure posting with you guys. Thanks to all of you –customers and booksellers alike—for making me feel welcome here. Happy New Year to all of you.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Divinity School Authors on Holiday Short Lists
Friday's Guest Blogger
Stuart Wells covers book news and continuing education for the Office of News & Communications at Duke. He’s also in charge of news release production and distribution and the gathering of Duke-related news clips.
Zeroing in on good nonfiction can be a challenge, but I’m glad to report that help is on the way -- at least over the next two weeks -- in the form of year-end holiday gift guides.
One of my favorites appears in The Christian Century’s Dec. 16 issue. The magazine has a special Christmas section of books, DVDs and CDs as recommended by the magazine’s editors, film reviewers and music critics, as well as Mary Harris Russell, a specialist in children’s literature at Indiana University. As you would expect, the list begins with theology and Bible topics, but then quickly ranges farther afield, from current events to fiction, from classical music to popular holiday CDs (and Tony Bennett, at 82 years young, isn’t taking a backseat to anyone).
Books by two Duke authors are included among the nine theological picks. Divinity School professor J. Kameron Carter’s “Race: A Theological Account” (Oxford University Press, September 2008) is singled out as not only offering a sharp analysis of a racialized Christian theology, but constructing a way forward to a “new theological imagination for the 21st century.” The book is also getting good buzz at the popular readers’ site.
Just one book down on the magazine’s list is “Scripture, Culture and Agriculture: An Agrarian Reading of the Bible” (Cambridge University Press, 2008) by Carter’s Duke Divinity colleague Ellen F. Davis. Professor Davis argues persuasively that the Bible provides “vision and principle” for land use in our time. Read Davis’s lively essay in "The Green Bible" and you will begin to appreciate a new way of reading the good book, an Earthly perspective that elevates issues of stewardship, care and justice.
I would be interested in hearing from this blog's readers as to where they first hear of good nonfiction: The New York Times Book Review, perhaps, or even Publishers Weekly, which has been a great source for me over the years.
I scan PW’s full list of new nonfiction with an eye out for the big red star next to any of their mini-reviews. That’s exactly what appeared a few weeks back next to the title of Duke theologian Stanley Hauerwas’s exceptional new book, “Living Gently in a Violent World: The Prophetic Witness of Weakness” (November 2008, IVP Academic Books), written with Jean Vanier, founder of L'Arche, a network of homes where people with and without mental disabilities live together as family.
Publishers Weekly says Hauerwas’s discussion of the political implications of gentleness in the last chapter “is worth the entire book.” I would say the same thing about Hauerwas’s meditation earlier in the book on the significance of place and community and what we mean by “progress.” I took delight in his story about a thirty-six-inch snow at Notre Dame that spoke volumes about a loss of community.
The book is part of a new series edited by Emmanuel Katongole and Chris Rice, codirectors of the Duke Divinity School Center for Reconciliation, that pairs academics and practitioners to examine issues of Christian life and thought.
Read the starred review
Hauerwas, a professor of theological ethics, is also the subject of a nice Publishers Weekly profile that notes that he has been writing steadily for nearly 40 years and keeping Library of Congress cataloguers busy (48 books and counting).
Hauerwas tells interviewer LaVonne Neff that of all his books his favorite is “The Peaceable Kingdom” (Univ. of Notre Dame, 1991), an introduction to Christian ethics that stresses community and nonviolence.
For Hauerwas, peace “looks like Jean Vanier having his arm around an elderly woman at Mass, a woman who has been cared for—for years—by people simply being present to her. That's peace.”
Read the full profile.
Stuart Wells covers book news and continuing education for the Office of News & Communications at Duke. He’s also in charge of news release production and distribution and the gathering of Duke-related news clips.
Zeroing in on good nonfiction can be a challenge, but I’m glad to report that help is on the way -- at least over the next two weeks -- in the form of year-end holiday gift guides.
One of my favorites appears in The Christian Century’s Dec. 16 issue. The magazine has a special Christmas section of books, DVDs and CDs as recommended by the magazine’s editors, film reviewers and music critics, as well as Mary Harris Russell, a specialist in children’s literature at Indiana University. As you would expect, the list begins with theology and Bible topics, but then quickly ranges farther afield, from current events to fiction, from classical music to popular holiday CDs (and Tony Bennett, at 82 years young, isn’t taking a backseat to anyone).
Books by two Duke authors are included among the nine theological picks. Divinity School professor J. Kameron Carter’s “Race: A Theological Account” (Oxford University Press, September 2008) is singled out as not only offering a sharp analysis of a racialized Christian theology, but constructing a way forward to a “new theological imagination for the 21st century.” The book is also getting good buzz at the popular readers’ site.
Just one book down on the magazine’s list is “Scripture, Culture and Agriculture: An Agrarian Reading of the Bible” (Cambridge University Press, 2008) by Carter’s Duke Divinity colleague Ellen F. Davis. Professor Davis argues persuasively that the Bible provides “vision and principle” for land use in our time. Read Davis’s lively essay in "The Green Bible" and you will begin to appreciate a new way of reading the good book, an Earthly perspective that elevates issues of stewardship, care and justice.
I would be interested in hearing from this blog's readers as to where they first hear of good nonfiction: The New York Times Book Review, perhaps, or even Publishers Weekly, which has been a great source for me over the years.
I scan PW’s full list of new nonfiction with an eye out for the big red star next to any of their mini-reviews. That’s exactly what appeared a few weeks back next to the title of Duke theologian Stanley Hauerwas’s exceptional new book, “Living Gently in a Violent World: The Prophetic Witness of Weakness” (November 2008, IVP Academic Books), written with Jean Vanier, founder of L'Arche, a network of homes where people with and without mental disabilities live together as family.
Publishers Weekly says Hauerwas’s discussion of the political implications of gentleness in the last chapter “is worth the entire book.” I would say the same thing about Hauerwas’s meditation earlier in the book on the significance of place and community and what we mean by “progress.” I took delight in his story about a thirty-six-inch snow at Notre Dame that spoke volumes about a loss of community.
The book is part of a new series edited by Emmanuel Katongole and Chris Rice, codirectors of the Duke Divinity School Center for Reconciliation, that pairs academics and practitioners to examine issues of Christian life and thought.
Read the starred review
Hauerwas, a professor of theological ethics, is also the subject of a nice Publishers Weekly profile that notes that he has been writing steadily for nearly 40 years and keeping Library of Congress cataloguers busy (48 books and counting).
Hauerwas tells interviewer LaVonne Neff that of all his books his favorite is “The Peaceable Kingdom” (Univ. of Notre Dame, 1991), an introduction to Christian ethics that stresses community and nonviolence.
For Hauerwas, peace “looks like Jean Vanier having his arm around an elderly woman at Mass, a woman who has been cared for—for years—by people simply being present to her. That's peace.”
Read the full profile.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Versus List
We decided to do a versus on the list idea that Bill had on Monday. Below you will find the fruits of that labor, catgorized for your convience.
Each list will be shown in the following format:
Arthur's Pick/Bill's Pick
Fantasy
1. The Lord of the Rings / Magic for Beginners
2. The Once & Future King / Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire
3. The Lion,the Witch, & the Wardrobe / Hard-Boiled Wonderland & the End of the World
4. A Game of Thrones / American Gods
5. Eye of the World / The Once & Future King
Books Featuring Talking Animals
1. Watership Down / Funny Papers
2. Animal Farm / The Magic Pudding
3. Charlotte’s Web / The Lion,the Witch,& the Wardrobe
4. Redwall / Cricket in Times Square
5. The Lion,the Witch,& the Wardrobe / Animal Farm
Coming of Age Books
1. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn/ Edisto
2. Lord of the Flies / Catcher in the Rye
3. To Kill a Mockingbird / To Kill a Mockingbird
4. Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl / Wait Until Spring, Bandini
5. Squanto: Friend of the Pilgrims / Coal Black Horse
The Intersection of Science & Religion
1. The Language of God / The Sparrow & Children of God
2. Inherit the Wind / Inherit the Wind
3. On the Origin of Species / Creation
4. The Bible (Green Edition) / On the Origin of Species
5. Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast / The Brick Testament: Stories from the Book of Genesis
The World Under George W. Bush
1. The Looming Tower / Get Your War On
2. The Faith of George W. Bush / Man Without a Country
3. The President of Good and Evil / The 9-11 Report – A Graphic Adaptation
4. Bush at War / 1984
5. The Great Deluge / Catch 22
Featuring Food
1. Fast Food Nation / Smokestack Lightning
2. Two for the Road / Cooking With Fernet Branca
3. United States of Argula / Serious Pig
4. What Einstein Told His Cook / Babette’s Feast
5. Milk: The Surprising Story of Milk Through the Ages / How to Eat Fried Worms
Agree with us? Of a different mind than us? Feel free to leave us your comments and list below.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
The Power of Love
Let’s talk about love.
I know it’s not Valentines Day but I have been giving it a lot of thought lately. How does this apply to books you might ask? Well don’t worry I’m going to hit you with the book knowledge below.
I have to start this off by briefly talking about one of the forbidden topics here, religion, specifically faith. I consider myself to be a man of faith. I believe in the Bible, Jesus, and everything included in that. Don’t worry I’m not trying to convert you in this blog. I just needed to say that because the book I am recommending below is at its heart a religious book. That being said, if you shy away from it because of that, you might be missing out on some truths about love that could help you out in the long run.
The book I have been vaguely referring to is The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman. Chapman has identified five ways we define love. That seems kind of narrow and a tad vague but when I tell you the five perhaps it will make more sense. The five love languages according to Chapman are: Quality Time, Receiving Gifts, Acts of Service, Physical Touch, and Words of Affirmation. They are essentially ways in which a person can show you they love and care about you.
Quality Time is really self-defined, it means spending time with someone you love. You might be saying, who wouldn’t want to spend time with someone they love? Well that’s not the point here; the point is do you need someone to spend time with you to show you they care for you. Essentially does love=time spent together to you. Some people just crave time with the people they love and need this to be reciprocated in order to feel that complete bond that love entails.
Receiving gifts also seems rather straightforward. Is it by the amount of things someone buys you that you define the strength of their love. I know at it’s heart this seems superficial but every year we run out to florist in droves to buy flowers and we certainly make a big deal of Mother’s Day, Christmas, and birthdays. Some people need gifts as a way of showing them love. I would argue that it’s not so much about the gifts in this case but about the thought when you saw said gift. To the receiver, the gift means they were on your mind and that means love.
Acts of Service means doing something for the one you care about. I firmly believe my wife is an acts of service lover. She quantifies my love for her by the amount of things I do to help her out. Again, this may seem on the surface a selfish thing but we all get overwhelmed from time to time and who wouldn’t like a helping hand. By giving an acts of service person a helping hand you are acknowledging that you have been paying enough attention and care enough about them to provide the helping hand. This is immediate heart fuel to an acts of service lover.
Physical Touch is easy enough. Some people prefer their love to be immediate and rely on physical contact to show it. Holding a hand, putting your arm around someone at the movies, or a gentle hand on a knee are all signs of love to a physical touch lover. I’m pretty sure that this precludes all public displays of affection, as making out in the restaurant though physical touch is not the kind of touch we're talking about here. We're talking about an intimate touch that says to the partner you are on my mind and I love you.
Words of Affirmation are easy to say but hard to do. Our society doesn’t really encourage anymore. We are a society of faultfinders. We are waiting for someone to screw up so we can tell him or her about it. When we do give affirmation words they are usually hollow and meaningless like when we ask someone how there doing. Do we really care how there doing? Most of the time people just say fine anyway and when they don’t we are certainly not listening to them after that. I believe after examining myself from all angles I am largely a Words of Affirmation lover. I quantify how much a person cares for me by their words. That being said, I know when the words are genuine and when they’re just placating or hollow.
In closing, the book has way more than the simple examples I gave you above. I believe Chapman has reached into the root of our love process and found some hidden truths. If you read the book I am almost positive you will see yourself predominately in one of the camps above. I was skeptical and I found my love home. I think that to reach a true intimate relationship that is fulfilling we have to give our partners a little bit of all of the five love languages but make sure we add a touch more of the one they most quantify love with.
Do yourself a favor and read the book, even you guys. Love is not just for the ladies anymore. If you want help in the love process it never hurts to have a little more knowledge.
Monday, December 15, 2008
We List You A Merry... oh never mind
A customer here at the Gothic recently confessed that she loved this time of year. I assumed her enthusiasm had to do with the impending holidays, but she corrected me:
“It’s because all of the best-of lists are coming out!”
I know what she means. The last couple of weeks have seen the publication of the New York Times’ 10 Best Books List, (as well as its Top 100 List, if you aren’t satisfied with just 10), Three Percent’s Best Translated Novels list, NPR’s compilation of lists from critics and booksellers alike, and Salon.com’s lists of best fiction and nonfiction.
There’s plenty more where that came from. The pop culture blog Largehearted Boy has a terrific list of best-of lists (Not ranked, sadly. I guess that would be too meta.) I can’t get enough of these kinds of things. It doesn’t matter what the category is. I don’t garden, golf, fish, or knit, but I’d read a top-ten list of books in any of those categories, and I’d find it fascinating.
Booksellers, much like the manic record store clerks in Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity, are natural list makers. It doesn’t take much to draw us into an argument over which books would make the list of best hard-boiled crime novels (The Big Nowhere, The Underground Man, 1974, Red Harvest, The Long Goodbye) or the best uses of rock and roll in a novel (Perfect Circle, Glimpses, Idoru).
The problem is that we need more categories. We’ve argued all the standards to death. I’m hereby calling on my fellow bloggers (I’m calling you out here, Arthur and Kathy) as well as my co-workers at the Gothic to come up with some new lists for us to waste time debating. We can follow up (read: argue like wild dogs) in future posts.
(Lieutenant Awesome, who is sitting behind me eating Lance Crackers as I type, is yelling out suggestions even now: Best Graduation Books! Best Airplane Reading!)
Here are a few to start us off. As we come up with nominees for these lists, I’ll link to them:
Best Novels Featuring Animals that Talk to Humans
Best Books With Titles of Five or More Words
Best Books Made Into Terrible Movies
Best Time-Travel Books
Best Books (Fiction or Non-Fiction) Featuring 1+ Scenes of Skateboarding
Books Featuring Twins
And, of course: Books of Lists.
Happy List Season, Gothic Shoppers!
“It’s because all of the best-of lists are coming out!”
I know what she means. The last couple of weeks have seen the publication of the New York Times’ 10 Best Books List, (as well as its Top 100 List, if you aren’t satisfied with just 10), Three Percent’s Best Translated Novels list, NPR’s compilation of lists from critics and booksellers alike, and Salon.com’s lists of best fiction and nonfiction.
There’s plenty more where that came from. The pop culture blog Largehearted Boy has a terrific list of best-of lists (Not ranked, sadly. I guess that would be too meta.) I can’t get enough of these kinds of things. It doesn’t matter what the category is. I don’t garden, golf, fish, or knit, but I’d read a top-ten list of books in any of those categories, and I’d find it fascinating.
Booksellers, much like the manic record store clerks in Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity, are natural list makers. It doesn’t take much to draw us into an argument over which books would make the list of best hard-boiled crime novels (The Big Nowhere, The Underground Man, 1974, Red Harvest, The Long Goodbye) or the best uses of rock and roll in a novel (Perfect Circle, Glimpses, Idoru).
The problem is that we need more categories. We’ve argued all the standards to death. I’m hereby calling on my fellow bloggers (I’m calling you out here, Arthur and Kathy) as well as my co-workers at the Gothic to come up with some new lists for us to waste time debating. We can follow up (read: argue like wild dogs) in future posts.
(Lieutenant Awesome, who is sitting behind me eating Lance Crackers as I type, is yelling out suggestions even now: Best Graduation Books! Best Airplane Reading!)
Here are a few to start us off. As we come up with nominees for these lists, I’ll link to them:
Best Novels Featuring Animals that Talk to Humans
Best Books With Titles of Five or More Words
Best Books Made Into Terrible Movies
Best Time-Travel Books
Best Books (Fiction or Non-Fiction) Featuring 1+ Scenes of Skateboarding
Books Featuring Twins
And, of course: Books of Lists.
Happy List Season, Gothic Shoppers!
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Happy books
We have an assortment of holiday books (which are on sale for 30% off by the way) but I have two favorites. They are both by, of all people, Lemony Snicket – and they aren’t unfortunate or unpleasant, in fact they are quite charming. The first one is The Latke Who Couldn’t Stop Screaming, A Christmas Story (illustrations by Lisa Brown). A latke, which runs away from a hot pan of oil, keeps running into Christmas things, lights, candy canes, a pine tree and has to keep explaining himself until he finds a new home. The second is The Lump of Coal (art by Brett Helquist). It is the story of a lump of coal who can think, talk and move itself around. His adventures are hilarious. Obvious I can’t tell you much else without ruining the story, but as it says on the back jacket, “Miracles can happen, even to those who are small, flammable, and dressed all in black.”
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Books for Lt. Awesome
One of our student coworkers here at the Gothic (we’ll call him Lieutenant Awesome) recently asked me what books I’d recommend for a reading list of classic American literature. It’s an interesting question, and it’s sparked a lively but fun debate here at the store. We’ve expanded the parameters of the category to include some writers from other countries, and several of us have gotten in on the game. In the first of what is going to be a series of occasional dual (or duel, depending on the topic) postings, Arthur and I are going to come up with a few recommendations.
Me first:
In coming up with a reading list like this, it’s easy and tempting to simply run down the list of canonized “great” authors and pull from their works. And in fact, some of these authors are just the ones I’d recommend. But I feel inclined to tailor my list to what I feel are Lt. Awesome’s tastes, so I’m going to draw from some contemporary authors, too.
Lt. Awesome is interested in war and history, so my initial recommendations are going to organize themselves around that interest.
First, I’d recommend Hemingway’s For Whom The Bell Tolls. Not only is it a tersely but elegantly written book on war, it’s a good jumping-off point for modern American fiction. You can go from this book to other great books on war (see below), immerse yourself in Hemingway’s contemporaries, such as Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, or Sherwood Anderson (all killer-diller writers), or pursue Hemingway’s stylistic trajectory and pick up books by the great pulp writers such as Hammett or Thompson.
I’ll also put Lt. Awesome onto All Quiet on the Western Front. Remarque’s book on German soldiers fighting in World War I is widely considered to be the greatest book ever written on war and its effects on those who wage it.
For a more contemporary writer –and war—I’ll suggest Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried. O’Brien uses language that is both tough and compassionate to describe the inner lives of a company of soldiers in the Vietnam War. The book is a classic of war writing, and a classic of modern American fiction.
Finally, for something of a palate cleanser, I’m going to suggest Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five. It’s technically a war novel too, I guess. It’s also great fun to read, and it’s a good introduction to what can be done with the twin weapons of absurdity and articulate cynicism. So it goes.
Right, those are my kick-off picks. There are many, many more authors I’d recommend that have been left off this list. I hope we return to this subject soon.
Ready, Arthur? Hit me:
Okay, my turn.
Sticking with the military theme for Lt. Awesome my recommendations fall along similar but alternate lines.
First, I would suggest Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. I found the book to be wonderful. It does such a good job of showing what a giant bureaucracy an army can become. It is at times dark and sinister yet still amusing, and at times outright audacious in the absurdities that befall these poor airmen.
Next, I would go with the Red Badge of Courage. Set during the civil war, this novel follows a single soldier as he faces the horrors of battle. The novel is so well written and you become so invested in the protagonist that by the end you are totally immersed in a time that none of us were alive for. The novel also speaks to a functioning army comprised of many soldiers acting towards one conclusion.
Though it may seem oddly out of place amongst all these war novels, I have recommended to the lieutenant that he read To Kill a Mockingbird. When I came into the conversation it was built on a premise that the lieutenant wanted to read classic American literature. Mockingbird is such a wonderful book about dark subject matter. Rape, racism, and class and gender wars all play a part in Mockingbird. Though no actual war is fought I still think the book should be considered a classic and no thorough reading should go without it.
Next, I would recommend a play Inherit the Wind. It was one of the first plays I ever read and is again about a different kind of war, the war of evolution and religion. It is a great piece that when well acted can leave you with much to think about. The playwright does an excellent job of remaining neutral and there is no clear cut winning side in the play.
Lastly, I recommend a book about a war of the future in 1984. Orwell’s’ classic shows a bleak world where a Big Brother watches you. Your every move is monitored and cataloged. Some would say we are not to far away from this with the passing of the Patriot Act; others would digress with an argument of freedom versus safety. The novel under the current conditions our country faces holds up well, and is as pertinent today as it was when it was written.
Whatever choices he makes I applaud the lieutenants desire to further his knowledge of literature and encourage him to go forth and conquer these great books.
Me first:
In coming up with a reading list like this, it’s easy and tempting to simply run down the list of canonized “great” authors and pull from their works. And in fact, some of these authors are just the ones I’d recommend. But I feel inclined to tailor my list to what I feel are Lt. Awesome’s tastes, so I’m going to draw from some contemporary authors, too.
Lt. Awesome is interested in war and history, so my initial recommendations are going to organize themselves around that interest.
First, I’d recommend Hemingway’s For Whom The Bell Tolls. Not only is it a tersely but elegantly written book on war, it’s a good jumping-off point for modern American fiction. You can go from this book to other great books on war (see below), immerse yourself in Hemingway’s contemporaries, such as Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, or Sherwood Anderson (all killer-diller writers), or pursue Hemingway’s stylistic trajectory and pick up books by the great pulp writers such as Hammett or Thompson.
I’ll also put Lt. Awesome onto All Quiet on the Western Front. Remarque’s book on German soldiers fighting in World War I is widely considered to be the greatest book ever written on war and its effects on those who wage it.
For a more contemporary writer –and war—I’ll suggest Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried. O’Brien uses language that is both tough and compassionate to describe the inner lives of a company of soldiers in the Vietnam War. The book is a classic of war writing, and a classic of modern American fiction.
Finally, for something of a palate cleanser, I’m going to suggest Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five. It’s technically a war novel too, I guess. It’s also great fun to read, and it’s a good introduction to what can be done with the twin weapons of absurdity and articulate cynicism. So it goes.
Right, those are my kick-off picks. There are many, many more authors I’d recommend that have been left off this list. I hope we return to this subject soon.
Ready, Arthur? Hit me:
Okay, my turn.
Sticking with the military theme for Lt. Awesome my recommendations fall along similar but alternate lines.
First, I would suggest Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. I found the book to be wonderful. It does such a good job of showing what a giant bureaucracy an army can become. It is at times dark and sinister yet still amusing, and at times outright audacious in the absurdities that befall these poor airmen.
Next, I would go with the Red Badge of Courage. Set during the civil war, this novel follows a single soldier as he faces the horrors of battle. The novel is so well written and you become so invested in the protagonist that by the end you are totally immersed in a time that none of us were alive for. The novel also speaks to a functioning army comprised of many soldiers acting towards one conclusion.
Though it may seem oddly out of place amongst all these war novels, I have recommended to the lieutenant that he read To Kill a Mockingbird. When I came into the conversation it was built on a premise that the lieutenant wanted to read classic American literature. Mockingbird is such a wonderful book about dark subject matter. Rape, racism, and class and gender wars all play a part in Mockingbird. Though no actual war is fought I still think the book should be considered a classic and no thorough reading should go without it.
Next, I would recommend a play Inherit the Wind. It was one of the first plays I ever read and is again about a different kind of war, the war of evolution and religion. It is a great piece that when well acted can leave you with much to think about. The playwright does an excellent job of remaining neutral and there is no clear cut winning side in the play.
Lastly, I recommend a book about a war of the future in 1984. Orwell’s’ classic shows a bleak world where a Big Brother watches you. Your every move is monitored and cataloged. Some would say we are not to far away from this with the passing of the Patriot Act; others would digress with an argument of freedom versus safety. The novel under the current conditions our country faces holds up well, and is as pertinent today as it was when it was written.
Whatever choices he makes I applaud the lieutenants desire to further his knowledge of literature and encourage him to go forth and conquer these great books.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Horseshoes, Hand Grenades, and …Hardbacks.
I like a near miss.
It’s always a joy, of course, to read a book and simply not be able to imagine its being any better. As I’ve indicated in previous posts, I felt that way about Erickson’s Zeroville, as well as about Padgett Powell’s Edisto.
But once in a while I’m somewhat cheered by reading a book that comes close to pulling off what its author seemed to intend but that ultimately falls short. It feels like a sign that the author is reaching to articulate something just beyond his or her capacity. It’s like getting to watch someone learn how to write.
I remember reading a relatively early book by Denis Johnson, Resuscitation of a Hanged Man. This was back in the early 90’s, and Johnson’s star was just starting to rise. Later in the 90’s he would publish the knockout book of stories, Jesus’ Son, and just last year he won the National Book Award for his breakout novel, Tree of Smoke. At the time, though, he’d published but three novels, of which Resuscitation was the most recent. I’d been pulling for Johnson over the course of his first couple of books, and I had high hopes for the new one. But when I finished it, what I thought was: Wow, almost.
Rather than disappointed, though, I felt kind of elated, because he’d almost done it. He’d gotten closer to writing a masterpiece than he had before, and I could feel the momentum of his progression towards …something. Maturity, maybe? A stronger command of his obvious talent? Anyway, he was getting there, and I was getting to watch.
Writing is a peculiar art form. I’ve always considered all of the arts –painting, music, sculpture, dance—to be attempts to express what is ineffable about the human condition. Literature, counterintuitively, is an attempt to express the ineffable using words, which means that a near miss is something impressive in itself.
Sometimes, when a writer acknowledges the impossibility of what he or she is trying to accomplish, but proceeds anyway, something amazing happens. I’m thinking here of Joan Wickersham’s powerful, painful book The Suicide Index. Wickersham’s father committed suicide after a long but largely hidden struggle with depression. As anyone who has survived such an incident will tell you, trying to put the aftermath of such an event into words is nearly impossible. For a writer, coming face to face with the possibility that there simply might not be language available to describe her experience could have rendered her mute. I’m surprised she didn’t just publish a blank book.
Instead, she made a study of the uselessness of trying to use language to impose order on the chaotic effects of her father’s suicide. Structuring her book as an index –that most ordered of documents—she articulated not merely the experience itself but the failure of trying to do so.
Wickersham’s book caught the notice of a lot of critics. It garnered a surprise nomination for the National Book Award, and landed on the best books of the year lists of Salon.com, The Boston Globe, the L.A. Times, and the Washington Post. It’s a brilliant book on a tough subject, certainly, but I think that the attention the book earned had to do with something more, something left unsaid in the reviews. I think that Wickersham produced a book that, whether deliberately or not, goes to the very heart of what all writers try to do. She nakedly exposed the struggle to bend language to the purpose of saying what can't be said.
She wrote a near miss, and did so brilliantly.
It’s always a joy, of course, to read a book and simply not be able to imagine its being any better. As I’ve indicated in previous posts, I felt that way about Erickson’s Zeroville, as well as about Padgett Powell’s Edisto.
But once in a while I’m somewhat cheered by reading a book that comes close to pulling off what its author seemed to intend but that ultimately falls short. It feels like a sign that the author is reaching to articulate something just beyond his or her capacity. It’s like getting to watch someone learn how to write.
I remember reading a relatively early book by Denis Johnson, Resuscitation of a Hanged Man. This was back in the early 90’s, and Johnson’s star was just starting to rise. Later in the 90’s he would publish the knockout book of stories, Jesus’ Son, and just last year he won the National Book Award for his breakout novel, Tree of Smoke. At the time, though, he’d published but three novels, of which Resuscitation was the most recent. I’d been pulling for Johnson over the course of his first couple of books, and I had high hopes for the new one. But when I finished it, what I thought was: Wow, almost.
Rather than disappointed, though, I felt kind of elated, because he’d almost done it. He’d gotten closer to writing a masterpiece than he had before, and I could feel the momentum of his progression towards …something. Maturity, maybe? A stronger command of his obvious talent? Anyway, he was getting there, and I was getting to watch.
Writing is a peculiar art form. I’ve always considered all of the arts –painting, music, sculpture, dance—to be attempts to express what is ineffable about the human condition. Literature, counterintuitively, is an attempt to express the ineffable using words, which means that a near miss is something impressive in itself.
Sometimes, when a writer acknowledges the impossibility of what he or she is trying to accomplish, but proceeds anyway, something amazing happens. I’m thinking here of Joan Wickersham’s powerful, painful book The Suicide Index. Wickersham’s father committed suicide after a long but largely hidden struggle with depression. As anyone who has survived such an incident will tell you, trying to put the aftermath of such an event into words is nearly impossible. For a writer, coming face to face with the possibility that there simply might not be language available to describe her experience could have rendered her mute. I’m surprised she didn’t just publish a blank book.
Instead, she made a study of the uselessness of trying to use language to impose order on the chaotic effects of her father’s suicide. Structuring her book as an index –that most ordered of documents—she articulated not merely the experience itself but the failure of trying to do so.
Wickersham’s book caught the notice of a lot of critics. It garnered a surprise nomination for the National Book Award, and landed on the best books of the year lists of Salon.com, The Boston Globe, the L.A. Times, and the Washington Post. It’s a brilliant book on a tough subject, certainly, but I think that the attention the book earned had to do with something more, something left unsaid in the reviews. I think that Wickersham produced a book that, whether deliberately or not, goes to the very heart of what all writers try to do. She nakedly exposed the struggle to bend language to the purpose of saying what can't be said.
She wrote a near miss, and did so brilliantly.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Chiropterology
Lie down and make yourself comfortable on the couch.
I’ve been reading a lot of Batman recently, to be specific the Long Halloween and Dark Victory. Reading these books back to back was a wonderful experience that got me thinking about who Batman is and why we identify with him. I will preface the below blog with the foreknowledge that I am one of the 7 individuals below the age of 40 that has not seen the Dark Knight movie that is all the rage. I’ve heard it was good though.
Growing up I took to comics like a duck takes to water, actually more like a fish takes to water. Comics always seemed natural and homey to me. I loved just about all comics but my favorite by a long shot was Spider-Man. Spidey appealed to me because he was a normal guy thrust into abnormal circumstances (in this case getting bitten by a radioactive spider). I must admit my knowledge of the mythos of Batman is not as extensive as Spideys’ but I am not unfamiliar with the back-story. So I offer the two as a compare and contrast. Let’s dissect them and see what makes these “heroes” tick.
A hero is only as good as his back-story and the case of these two there are striking similarities. Bruce Wayne’s (Batman) mother and father were gunned down in a back alley of Gotham city when he was a young boy. He was terrified and felt totally helpless to prevent the killings. He ended up being raised by his family’s butler, Alfred. Peter Parker’s (Spidey) parents are never really mentioned, we just know they are not there. He ended up being raised by his Aunt May and his Uncle Ben. He like Wayne had a pleasant childhood. Parker’s lasted longer as he was in his teens before the startling events that led to Spider-man occurred. Also, unlike Wayne, Parker had an opportunity to avoid the death of his Uncle Ben at the hands of a gunman. The future gunman actually ran by Parker on his way out of a building. Parker could have easily stopped the gunman as by that time he had his spider powers but he neglected to by indicating it was “not his problem”. The subsequent killing of his uncle left Parker with a desire to use his powers responsibly.
Therein lies our first difference between our heroes. Spidey is a hero born from a responsibility to use his powers to protect others. Batman is a hero born out of a sense of helplessness. He was helpless the night his parents died and he will never be helpless again. Not only will he never be helpless again, he will help those who are helpless.
Secondly, both characters lack a true father in their stories. Parker was raised by his Uncle Ben and Wayne by Alfred. Parker as Spider-man continues to show an almost immature thought process, cracking jokes while fighting the evildoers. Wayne as Batman doesn’t do jokes. His whole persona is dour and he fights evil with a dark countenance. Their actions in the way they fight crime to me is an indication of where they stand as men whose fathers left them early. Parker seems to have stagnated in his adolescence; it was the best time of his life when his uncle was still alive and he was a typical teen. Wayne has shut himself down, becoming unfeeling like the world that took his parents away. His logic being if he chose to love and feel again he might have to experience the pain of loss again.
Thirdly, if we look at their superhero personas we can learn a lot about what makes them heroes. Spider-man’s suit is bright red and blue. It proclaims to the evildoers and citizens alike that someone different is here to save them. Parker created his suit by hand and even invented the web shooters that spray his webs. His suit is functional and somewhat fun. Batmans' suit is gray and black. It proclaims to evildoers that someone is here that they need to fear. Wayne even says he adopted the bat as a symbol to strike fear into the hearts of those who would do harm to innocents. Batman is seen often with a utility belt. It seems at times the belt has everything: grenades, gas masks, anti poison pills, etc. I believe this stems from a desire of Wayne to never again be caught unprepared, as he was the night of his parent’s attacks.
Finally, the last differences between the two heroes are their friends and villains. Spider-man’s friends are many - MJ, Flash Thompson, The Human Torch, etc. His villains are all similar in that they pick a theme and build a costume to fit it. Their motivations are usually profit and or self-improvement. Batman has only a few friends, mainly the men who have donned the mantle of Robin over the years; his villains are all treacherous and deadly. They are insane men and women who are out to destroy Gotham City or the world. One of the prominent buildings in Gotham is Arkham Asylum. It houses all the lunatics that make up Batmans’ pantheon of foes.
In conclusion, I think we are drawn to Batman as a character because first he is a regular guy like us. He has no superpowers. He has risen above the regular through sheer will of mind and cleverly created gadgets. Secondly, unlike Spider-man we cannot always be sure Batman’s intentions are purely good. When reading the comics you begin to wonder if this will not be the time Batman crosses the line and kills one of his villains. Finally, I think we are drawn to him because he is flawed as a human being. He is a young boy who has never recovered from a tragic event that occurred when he was a child. We have all faced a trauma of some sort and are ready and willing to identify with our fellow sufferers.
In closing, I urge you to read the comics I mentioned above. They are extraordinarily well written and can be used to formulate your own opinions about Batman. I for one now look on Batman and Spider-man with different eyes. I am not sure either can be seen as a “hero”. After reading the Batman comics I think the only true hero in them is Jim Gordon, Gotham’s police chief. He is a steadfast honorable man, maybe the last one Gotham has and certainly one our real world can use more of.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
In a rut....
I’m in a rut and I can’t get out. You know how sometimes you’re hungry but nothing appeals to you? Well, I’m horrified to say that has been happening to me about books lately (and we know it’s not because I don’t have plenty), but I think I may have just found the answer. We just got in a new book by Ali Smith called The Book Lover. Everything in this anthology is something that she has loved reading over the course of her life. There are famous authors and not so famous ones. There are pieces she loved as a child as well as pieces she’s loved as an adult. There are poems as well as prose. And there are people I’ve never heard of in it – which to me is the most appealing aspect of the book. I’ll keep you posted!
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Readership Up
I can remember when I first realized I liked reading.
I was one of those people who read because I was forced to for English class. I remember reading Moby Dick, Anna Karenina, Tess of the D’Urbervilles, and of course the Odyssey. Some I liked and some I didn’t care for. I wish I could tell you reading all that classic literature prompted me to become an avid reader but regrettably it did not.
So what then prompted by lush desire for reading? I was sitting in my high school library working on an awful project about Albert Camus and the rise of existentialism in The Stranger when I suddenly realized I didn’t really like the book or Camus very much. I randomly started wandering the library. I arrived in the fiction section where I went to the first part of the alphabet my eyes resting on Richard Adams’ Watership Down. I read the back cover of the book, bunnies huh? Still it did seem slightly interesting and certainly better than The Stranger. So I checked it out.
I went home later that evening on the bus where I fished the book out of my bag. I started reading and was 3 chapters in before I got off the bus. I can scarcely remember eating dinner such was the pull of these rabbits plight. Before I knew it, it was time to hit the sheets for the evening. I had worked my way through just over half the book and my desire was to stay up and finish it but I knew the practicality of that was not good, so I let it go for the evening.
I’m pretty sure I dreamed of the black river. (A highway to the poor rabbits, a river some didn’t make it across) I don’t know if I actually was a rabbit or not but I knew what it felt like I guess.
When I awoke the next morning I really didn’t want to go to school. I just wanted to read the book. I knew the trouble that awaited me for skipping so I trudged off. The bus ride again allowed me to reacquaint myself with my rabbit friends. I don’t recall much of school that day until lunchtime where I again started reading. Looking back I must have seemed quite the nerd, sitting on the wall reading a book with a fluffy white bunny on the cover but then I honestly didn’t care.
It was at this ill-fated lunch that things took a turn for the worse. One of my bunny friends died. I was crestfallen. I loved the character of that bunny so much that it was like Richard Adams reached through the book and slapped me in the face. The lunch ending bell was ringing and my eyes were watering from the loss. I had to lumber off to English class. It was there I received more bad news my report about Camus was due by the end of the week. It was loss heaped on loss. How could I go back to the morbid depression of The Stranger when I had the morbid depression of Watership Down to finish?
Well I’d love to tell you I returned to Camus and aced that paper but that would be a lie. I finished Watership Down; it was an amazing book (and still is) and left me hungry to read more. In the subsequent weeks, I finished Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Lord of the Rings, and the Chronicles of Narnia. Notice anything missing from that list?
I got a 75(D) on my Stranger report but I was okay with that.
Monday, December 1, 2008
What Makes It All Worthwhile
The thing is: bookselling is something of an uphill battle. You have to have a sense of mission to keep at this quixotic endeavor, and many of us do. But the stronger the sense of mission one has, greater is his potential for getting discouraged.
Now, folks have been proclaiming the death of reading for as long as I’ve been in the business. Video games, cable television, IPods, texting: each of these in its ascendancy –according to pundits, educators, and codgers alike—has spelled the demise of biblio-centric culture. I don’t really buy into all that hysteria. When you read that more kids lined up for the release of the last Harry Potter book than lined up for the last installment in the Star Wars series, it’s hard to argue that books are fading into obscurity.
Still, I can’t deny that it’s getting harder to put good books into people’s hands. It’s increasingly rare for someone to walk into the Gothic and ask for a recommendation, and it’s rarer still for the mainstream publishing industry to release a book that makes a missionary of you.
It can wear you down.
But there are days when it’s all worthwhile. A newly invigorated Lost Roads Publishers has reissued three books by the great American poet Frank Stanford, and I’ve ordered them for our store. Stanford was a major poet, the best I’ve ever read, and he’s been all but ignored in the canon of American literature. Once in a while I’ll run into a fellow fanatic (Duke’s own Tony Tost is one), but for the most part, his work remains unknown to most readers.
Stanford’s books have been out of print for so long that it’s criminal. I’ve had to talk to customers about him as though he were some sort of imaginary friend. There are books of his that I’ve never even seen. Soon, though, I’ll be able to force our unsuspecting customers to read The Singing Knives, You, and, most importantly, The Battlefield Where The Moon Says I Love You, Stanford’s 400-page poem that, until this edition, had never been published in a corrected, annotated edition.
Do these reissues constitute a major, significant moment in the world of publishing and bookselling? Maybe not, but, given the chance, I can put these books into people’s hands and be excited about doing so.
That’s enough, for now.
Now, folks have been proclaiming the death of reading for as long as I’ve been in the business. Video games, cable television, IPods, texting: each of these in its ascendancy –according to pundits, educators, and codgers alike—has spelled the demise of biblio-centric culture. I don’t really buy into all that hysteria. When you read that more kids lined up for the release of the last Harry Potter book than lined up for the last installment in the Star Wars series, it’s hard to argue that books are fading into obscurity.
Still, I can’t deny that it’s getting harder to put good books into people’s hands. It’s increasingly rare for someone to walk into the Gothic and ask for a recommendation, and it’s rarer still for the mainstream publishing industry to release a book that makes a missionary of you.
It can wear you down.
But there are days when it’s all worthwhile. A newly invigorated Lost Roads Publishers has reissued three books by the great American poet Frank Stanford, and I’ve ordered them for our store. Stanford was a major poet, the best I’ve ever read, and he’s been all but ignored in the canon of American literature. Once in a while I’ll run into a fellow fanatic (Duke’s own Tony Tost is one), but for the most part, his work remains unknown to most readers.
Stanford’s books have been out of print for so long that it’s criminal. I’ve had to talk to customers about him as though he were some sort of imaginary friend. There are books of his that I’ve never even seen. Soon, though, I’ll be able to force our unsuspecting customers to read The Singing Knives, You, and, most importantly, The Battlefield Where The Moon Says I Love You, Stanford’s 400-page poem that, until this edition, had never been published in a corrected, annotated edition.
Do these reissues constitute a major, significant moment in the world of publishing and bookselling? Maybe not, but, given the chance, I can put these books into people’s hands and be excited about doing so.
That’s enough, for now.
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