Friday Picture Reading - Ringo Star

Ringo Star reads an airplane book.

Tuesdays with Dorothy

"I'm never going to accomplish anything; that's perfectly clear to me. I'm never going to be famous. My name will never be writ large on the roster of Those Who Do Things. 


I don't do anything. Not one single thing. 


I used to bite my nails, but I don't even do that any more."


"The Little Hours" in Here Lies (1939)

The Abominable Man by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo

Just after midnight he stopped 

thinking.

Opening to

The Abominable Man

by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo

Translated from the Swedish by 

Thomas Teal

In a ten-part detective series characterized by its social critiques it's inevitable that one volume must address the police force itself.  Who will protect society from those charged with protecting society?  If the police force is corrupt, what is the citizenry to do?

This questions is unfortunatley as relevant today as it was in 1972 when The Abominable Man was first published, at least in the United States.  There is a very good chance that the state of Georgia has just executed an innocent man after the Supreme Court refused to issue a stay last Wednesday and President Obama refused to intervene in any way.  Meanwhile, in Fullerton, California bystanders recently filmed police officers beating a homeless man so severely that he later died.

As bad as both these examples are, the current situation is much better than it was in 1972 when police officers, at least in Sweden as it's depicted in Sjowall and Wahloo's novels, did not have to account for their actions to anyone.  Anyone that mattered at least. 

This is the setting for The Abominable Man, volume seven in The Story of Crime, the Martin Beck mysteries.  

The story opens with the murder of a police officer who lays dying in a hospital bed.  Now retired, former Chief Inspector Nyman was never a beloved police officer.  Few of his coworkers knew anything about his private life; his family knew nothing of his police work.  It's not until he is found knifed to death that anyone takes a serious look at his career.  The detectives working the case have no evidence to go on.  (This has been the case at the start of every Martin Beck novel so far.)  All they know is that Nyman used to be a police, when they force themselves to face facts they know that Nyman was a bad police officer. 

They soon determine their prime suspect to be former detective, Ericksson, who long held a grudge against Nyman. Ten years ago, Nyman arrested Ericksson's wife thinking she was under the influence of narcotics and left her chained in a cell unattended.  She later died, a result of her diabeties and the officers who failed to get her the medical attention she needed.  What they carelessly mistook for narcotic intoxication was actually the need for insulin.  Ericksson, forced to continue working alongside the officers who caused his wife's death, along with many others, eventually lost his job as his life spiraled out of control. He goes on a killing spree once he finally loses custody of his daughter to the state.  

Even with the presence of Sjowall and Wahloo's cast of good police officers, Martin Beck is far from the only one, The Abominable Man is a stinging indictment of a system that left the public unprotected from bad police officers as it encouraged good ones to turn a blind eye whenever they saw a colleague violating the law even in the most extreme circumstances.  It's unfortunate that this story is still so pertinent, but it drives home the point that detective novels need not go to extremes to find subject matter.  There is plenty to be dealt with in the work and lives of the detectives themselves.  Real police work, done in the real world, is fascinating stuff.  Something great mystery writers have always known. 

Sunday Salon: NYRB Introductions and Bookmooch Suck and Other Randomness

Introductions are not something I read often.  Honestly, it's rare that I ever find one worth the time it takes to read.  But even among a generally bad bunch those for the NYRB editions stand out time and time again.  (This comes from a fan of NYRB editions. I'm even a subscriber.)  

Currently, I'm reading Hard Rain Falling by Don Carpenter.  I skipped the introduction by George Pelecanos at first.  But after 50 pages, I decided to check it out. I was enjoying the book, and wandering why I'd not heard of author Don Carpenter before this.  The book was first published back in the 1960's.  

To my dismay, rather than present some research into the author's life, or come up with an interesting take on the novel that might provide some greater insight into it, Mr. Pelecanos's introduction is basically four pages of plot summary. Plot summary that gave away several twists and the ending.  

Thanks for that.  Even among a series marked by mediocre, throw-away introductions, this one stood out as useless.

But at least Mr. Pelecanos read the book.  Several years ago I read the introduction for Oxford University  Press's reprint of Under Two Flags by Ouida which referred to movie adaptations of the novel without mentioning the book itself once.  One could only conclude that the introduction was written by someone who had never read it.  (It's wonderful by the way.  Lots of fun.)  

All of which just makes me wonder about the purpose of introductions.  The presence of Mr. Pelecanos's name on the cover, "Introduction by", may help sell the book, I suppose.  He is a well known crime writer.  But has anyone out there ever bought a book because it had an introduction by a particular person, author or otherwise?  Do you ever read the introductions?  What would you like to see in one?  

Bookmooch sucks in an entirely different way.  For years I used Paperbackswap.com to trade books.  My reading taste is such that I rarely found the book I was interested when I first requested it, but with enough titles sitting on my wish list I got two to three books in my mailbox every month.  It was fun.  But I decided to try Bookmooch because that's the service I kept reading about on other blogs.

I posted 15 books to swap and immediately had 13 points I could trade for the books I wanted. However, the book I want are not the kind that are listed right away so I had to wait for them to become available just like I did with Paperbackswap.com.  The problem is that while Paperbackswap.com put me on a waiting list where I had to wait my turn, Bookmooch alerts everyone who wants a particular title at once and gives it to whomever gets there first.  So, far, this has never been me.  Apparently you have to Twitter to get a book from Bookmooch.  I don't Twitter.

Meanwhile, Paperbackswap.com continues to send me emails letting me know when books I want have become available.  So Bookmooch, for not sending me a book I want in months, you suck, too.  That said, if there is anyone out there who would like a Bookmooch point please let me know.  I'll be happy to give you one. I've got plenty I'm never going to use.

Sonoma County Book Festival:  And finally something that didn't suck.  Yesterday, I went to the Sonoma County Book Festival in downtown Santa Rosa, CA.  I've not been to a book festival in years, and have never gone to the panel discussions before. This time, I went to two, a very interesting one on the state of publishing and a sort of fun one on mystery novels.   One interesting new thing I learned from the Harper/Collins representative on the publishing panel is that stores like Target and Wal-Mart don't sell books because they make money on them.  They make very little money on the sale of books, but their presence brings in a type of customer who spends more money per visit than their typical customers do.  

Readers are good customers.

Ivan and Mischa: Stories by Michael Alenyikov

Mischa's papa had disappointed before.

Opening to the prologue of

Ivan and Mischa

by Michael Alenyikov

Ivan and Mischa by Michael Alenyikov explores the many forms of love between men.  This includes gay men who love each other, certainly, but it also includes the love between fathers and sons, between brothers and between friends as well.  Love takes many forms even when it does not cross between sexes.

Ivan and Mischa are fraternal twins, raised by their father after the death of their mother, they believe, in childbirth.  Their father Louie takes them away from their Kiev birthplace as the Soviet Union is collapsing, choosing to raise them in New York City.  As adults, Ivan is unable to make his dreams of wealth come true, but he finds satisfaction as a cab driver, when he has his bi-polar condition under control at least.  Mischa lives with his much younger lover Smith; theirs is a difficult relationship that may not outlast the novel.  The two brothers share the duty of caring for their aging father with their father's devoted friend Leo.

Mr. Alenyikov tells his tale through a series of interconnected shorty stories much like A Visit from the Goon Squad and Olive Kitteridge.  Of late, this has become such a common device, inter-linked short stories, that it  may end up a sort of sub-genre unto itself.  It would be possible to read any of the stories in Ivan and Mischa disconnect from the rest, but through them a fully formed narrative emerges.  When we find out in one story that what Louie has told his sons in another is not true, we fell the emotional impact doubly because we know how the lie has affected Ivan and Mischa in ways Louie does not.  While the same effect could certainly be achieved in a traditional, linear narrative form, the use of short stories allows for a book with several points of emotional impact.  Narratives typically have one big reveal in them at some point.  A novel has one.  A short story has one.  A book of shorts stories has as many.  Mr. Alenyikov uses this new form, the series of interconnected short stories, to deliver a series of emotional moments that would be difficult to do in a novel without reaching a point of critical overload.

It's become my habit the last few years to keep only books that I think I'll read again.  The rest I give away.  I'll be keeping my copy of Ivan and Mischa.  I'm confident that it will end up on my list of top ten favorite reads this year, and I'm sure that I will read it again.


Full Disclosure: I received a copy of Ivan and Mischa from the publishers.

The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo

A grey bird glided in and out of 

Harry's field of vision.

Opening to The Redbreast

by Jo Nesbo

translated from the Norwegian

by Don Bartlett

Dear Nesbosians,

I understand you love Jo Nesbo.  I know how closely you all follow his work.  I know that you're irritated by the Detective Harry Hole books being translated into English out of order and that you have to wait so long between editions.  Your devotion is the admirable form of love that all mystery writers long for.  I feel the same way about Haruki Murakami.  

 I realize that I stand almost alone indifferent to Mr. Nesbo like a straight man at a Liza Minnelli concert.  I've tried Mr. Nesbo twice, too.  I will say that I liked The Redbreast more than I did The Devil's Star, which I have no memory of at all.

I'm trying to figure out why I'm so indifferent to The Redbreast.   I thought it might be the short chapters, which, while they are reminiscient of rapid cutting used in films, failed to allow enough time for true tension to develope and for much character to surface.  But  short chapters prevail in the Martin Beck books which I'm currently a bit in love with, so that can't be it.  (I'm not really crazy about rabid fire cutting in films either.  And hold the darn camera still for a minute while you're at it.) 

While Mr. Nesbo does go after his female characters some (one comes to a gruesome, violent end) there isn't the disturbing sense of torture porn I found in the one Stieg Larsson book I read, which I didn't finish, by the way.  So that's not the problem.  

I'm a fan of spy fiction, which is full of plot contortions, unexpected reveals and improbably twists, but those in The Redbreast left me saying, "Oh, come on."  Multiple personality disorder.  Really?  That one was worse than Charles Dickens having a key suspect in Bleak House die of spontaneous combustion.

But, I'll be honest, I had a hard time following what was going on in The Redbreast after the first 250 pages.  It's possible that I simply lost interest and was no longer making a real effort, but honestly, why does anyone need a 500 page mystery thriller?  300 pages is the traditional length of a mystery for a reason.  You'd think in today's harsh financial climate mystery authors would be more economical.

I did enjoy the flashbacks to the Eastern Front.  That story line, while really a traditional wartime romance a la For Whom the Bell Tolls, was well done, compelling and made more interesting by its Eastern Front setting which I think most American readers are unfamiliar with.  

So, Nesbosians, there you have it.  Since I tried Jo Nesbo twice, you can't say I didn't give him a fair shake.  Whatever it is you all see in him remains a mystery to me.   I imagine some of you feel the same way about Haruki Murakami.

Tuesdays with Dorothy

"Drink and dance and laugh and lie,

Love, the reeling midnight through, 

For tomorrow we shall die!

(But, alas, we never do.)"

"The Flaw in Paganism" in Death and Taxes (1931)

BBAW: Bookstores We Love Part IV with Ana, Christina, Jackie and Gautami

I've asked several of my frequent commenters to contribute something on the theme of bookstores to help celebrate Book Blogger Appreciation Week which concludes today.  Today we have a hodgepodge of posts from Ana at Things Mean a Lot, Christina at Reading Through the Night,  Jackie at Farmlane Books and Gautami Tripathy at Everything Distils Into Reading

From Ana  an eclectic reader and a soon-to-be library school graduate who blogs about books at things mean a lot.

The most beautiful bookstore in the world.

Livraria Lello in Porto, Portugal dates back to the early twentieth century – a fact you can easily guess from the lovely Art Nouveau look of the building. Lello is regularly listed among the most beautiful bookshops in the world, and with good reason. I confess that over the years I’ve been guilty of going to Lello simply to be there – I’d browse and walk away empty-handed more often than not. Their selection is not what distinguishes it from other bookshops, and the steep prices of new books in Portugal means most were beyond my budget. But whenever I return home next I’ll make an effort to support them, because it matters to me that places like this exist. Shopping online is convenient and affordable and I'd never begrudge anyone for doing it, but surely there’s also a place in the world for this kind of cultural space – for living pieces of history to survive simply because people care about what they represent. Lello is a great addition to a city I love, and I’d be heartbroken to ever see it disappear.

Bess the Book Bus

From Christina at Reading Through the Night.


I am attaching a photo of a Bess the Book Bus.  I took it a couple of years ago while visiting St. Pete (Florida).  It was hanging outside of Haslam used bookstore, which is another treasure.  Evidently, Bess the Book Bus is a literacy outreach program that goes to homes, schools, shelters, etc., in lower SES areas.  They do read-alouds and give away books. 


From Jackie at Farmlane Books

Hoping Jackie gets to visit in person soon.

I have to admit that I’ve never been to my favourite bookshop, but The Big Green Bookshop  has so much to offer that I can’t help being a fan. They run three different reading groups  (including one for graphic novels), they have numerous author events and even run a quiz. They also interact with bloggers, encouraging a group of UK bloggers to nominate a book each month that they promote in store.  I just wish that they were closer, so I could pop in each week. Follow them on twitter @biggreenbooks


From Gautami Tripathy at Everything Distils Into Reading.

New Bookland  is a very small bookstore, round in shape, situated in the sidewalk of Janpath Market, New Delhi. It has been there as long as I remember. I have been buying books from there since 1980s, or before I think. It is situated near the school I studied in, so was easily accessible. The bookstore has books on everything that you can think of, although it looks too small for that. It is stacked from floor to ceiling with books of every imaginable shape, size and colour. The shop has virtually every book you could think of, ranging from the latest hard covers to books on world history, Indian culture, religion and the popular bestsellers. You name it, he has it. And if it is not available, which is very rare, the owner is sure to arrange it for you. Although there is a "fixed price, no bargain" tag, he does offer 20% discount on every book that you buy from there. One never leaves that bookstore empty handed. It is my favourite bookstore in Delhi, or maybe India!

Thanks to everyone who contributed to today's post and to all of the contributors we've featured this week.  I love how this experiment turned out to be a celebration of bookstores all around the world.  

BBAW: Bookstores We Love Part III: Jessica, Sam and Gavin.

To celebrate Book Blogger Appreciation Week I've asked several of my regular commenters to contribute something on the theme of bookstores, be it paragraph, picture or poem.  Today posts from Jessica, Sam at Book Chase and Gavin at Page 247.

From Jessica:

Soon to be on the shelves at
 used bookstores near Jessica.

While many people use 2^nd hand bookshops for picking up cheap past bestsellers and past Booker prize winners, they are also used by myself as a dumping ground for any of my read books. A pile tends to build up in the corner of my living room surprisingly quickly and just when this pile begins to bother me (as it just about is now) I pop along to one of many 2^nd hand bookshops in my area and offload. I don't like clutter and I'm quite ruthless when it comes to 'stuff' hanging around my house (even if that 'stuff' is books). This way I can save much needed space for my constant incoming unread books. Thank you bookshops for making my life easier and more clutter free.

From Sam Sattler at Book Chase:

I’m not sure when, or how, I first became aware of Houston’s Murder by the Book bookstore.  It seems to me like it’s always been there – and, as it turns out, that’s not all that far from the truth since the store celebrated its 30^th anniversary in 2010.  I first wandered in sometime in the early ‘80s and was a regular customer until I left Houston in late 1992 to work in and around Algeria for almost ten years.  These days my visits to Murder by the Book are limited by my increasing reluctance to make the 25 mile drive into the city, but it continues to be a favorite stop when I do make the trip.

As its name implies, Murder by the Book is an independent bookstore specializing in mysteries, thrillers, crime fiction, spy novels…well, you get the picture.  In very general terms, the stock is sorted into sections dedicated to mysteries written by American authors, mysteries by international authors, spy fiction, and bargain hardcovers of all the types I mentioned.  In addition, the store has numerous tables filled with the latest fiction, much of it autographed by the countless number of authors who appear at Murder by the Book in any given year. 

Murder by the Book, being an indie bookstore, has to try a little harder than the local Barnes & Noble and other chains (a dwindling breed themselves, these days).  These people know their stock and they love spreading the word about new books and those who write them.  I seldom have a specific title in mind when I visit the store but I know that I will leave with something interesting under my arm; it never fails to happen.

For years, I depended on David Thompson, a young man who worked in the store for at least twenty years before he suddenly died, in September 2010, rather shockingly in his home at age 38.  You only had to tell David what writers were your favorites and he would do the rest – turning you on to new writers of similar style or new books that were “must reads.”  It is still a little strange to go into Murder by the Book and not find David there.  (As an aside, I just want to add that David really grew into the business and even started publishing reprints of hard boiled detective fiction as Busted Flush Press.  The publishing went so well that it was all in the process of being sold to a larger publisher at the time of David’s death – although David intended to remain instrumental in deciding which books the new business would publish.)

But this is what makes this bookstore so special to me: in just the last couple of weeks, there have been something like 27 author-appearances for readings and book-signings.  Bill Crider, Michael Koryta, Steve Hamilton, Jan Burke, James Rollins, Bill Crider, Linda Castillo, and Deanna Raybourn are some of them.  And this is the normal pace for these guys.  If I only lived closer (and had a whole lot more money and space), I could have one of the largest collections of autographed books in the country.

If you are a murder mystery fan, don’t miss this bookstore.  If it’s a murder mystery, a crime thriller, or a spy novel, it will almost certainly be found at Murder by the Book – as will, sooner or later, its author. 

You, too, can shop at Murder by the Book.  

From Gavin at Page 247

I am very lucky.  I live in a city of many bookstores. There’s Elliot Bay Books and The University Bookstore but I’d rather mention some other local stores that are favorites of mine and that I try and support.  In the last two years I know of at least three shops within a couple of miles of my home that have had to shut their doors.  I do what I can.

Couth Buzzard Books and Buono Expresso

Couth Buzzard Books and Buono Espresso

8310 Greenwood Ave N

Seattle, WA

For many years The Couth Buzzard was a favorite used bookstore in the north end of Seattle.  Then they lost their lease and had to close their doors.  Two year later, like the Phoenix, they rose up and joined forces with Buono Espresso, opening a used bookstore/ café that offers musical events, writer’s circles and open mikes.  This is great place to trade books.  They have also started carrying some new books.  I can’t help stopping in whenever I am in the neighborhood.

Secret Garden Books

2214 NW Market Street

Seattle, WA

Secret Garden Books started out as a children’s bookshop in another area of the city.  Since moving to the Ballard neighborhood now carry new adult titles along with books for children and young adults.  They offer book clubs, author readings and will happily order any book for you.  This is another place I stop into whenever I’m in the area.

Santoro’s Books

7405 Greenwood Ave N

Seattle, WA

Another north end book shop, Santoro’s has been around for many years in a couple of locations.  They have an ongoing book club, a children’s story time, and they run the annual book sales at several local schools.  Santoro’s and one of my favorite spots for coffee and pastries are both on the way home from my Saturday morning exercise class. Dangerous!

Thanks to Jessica, Sam and Gavin from Dakota and me.  Please stop by tomorrow for part IV.

BBAW: Meet Gautami Tripathy from Everything Distils Into Reading.

Years ago, back in the internet's Mesozoic era when I began blogging, one of the first book blogs I found was Gautami Tripathy's Everything Distils Into Reading.(Then called: My Own Little Reading Room.)  Gautami was one of the first people Dakota selected back when we were hosting book give-aways on a regular basis.  She won a copy of Child 44.  This year, when I invited her to participate in my BBAW bookstore project, she asked if I'd like to exchange interviews as well.  Of course I said yes.  My interview is below.  

Where did the name of your blog "Everything Distils into Reading" come from?

 My life revolves around books. You know I am a teacher, so my work too, is reading related. That is how the name of my blog came up

You have been keeping a book blog a bit longer than I have.   Everything Distils into Reading is one of the first book blogs I read back when I started Ready When You Are, C.B. in 2007.    What has kept you interested in blogging these past few years? 

Everything Distils Into Reading is not my first blog. I lost my first book blog, My Own Little Reading Room to Malware and started this one in April 2009. Mainly getting to know about new books keeps me interested in blogging. I find out about new authors from book blogs and try to read those books. Sharing my thoughts on my blog keeps me going. I love to visit blogs (lately I have been a bit lazy)

Your blog brings a geographic perspective to my book blog reading that I value greatly.   I’m surprised that I haven’t found anyone else book blogging from India yet.  Are there others I’ve overlooked?   Is blogging as popular in India as it is in the U.S. and the U.K.?  Do your friends and family read your blog?  

There are two other Indian book blogger based in India, that I know of. But they read Chick Lit and YA (girly YA!). I don't find much in commom with them. Blogging is popular in India but not the way I see it in US or UK. It is slowly picking up. A few of my friends do read my blog but don't comment. My family, NO!

Hamayn's Tomb, Delhi.

I have wanted to visit India ever since I saw The Jewel in the Crown on Public Television back in 1984.  That’s a television min-series from the U.K. based on Paul Scott’s novels The Raj Quartet.  I think everyone in America wanted to visit India in 1984.  Everyone I knew at least.   If I ever do make it to Dehli, what are five places you would want me to see while there?  (I love out of the way places and can be adventurous when I travel.)

That is easy! You must visit Kutub Minar, Red Fort, Humayun's Tomb, Jantar Manter and Lotus Temple. I would love to see those with you! :D 

What Indian writers should we be reading now?  Is there anyone you think deserves to make it big we should be aware of?

I think you should read Vikram Seth. I used to love R. K. Narayan. You should check him too.

You know that I feature posts about my dog Dakota and the books she eats at Ready When You Are, C.B.  (Thankfully, it’s been a long time since her last book.)  So I always end my interviews, with authors and bloggers, by asking if you’ve ever had a pet that ate your books.  (You’d be surprised just how common it is.)

No, I don't have a pet. Never owned any!

My thanks to Gautami Tripathy for the interview exchange.  I have read some Vikram Seth and will be checking out R.K. Narayan soon.  And if I ever do make it to Dehli, I'll take you up on your offer.  I'd love to see Hamayun's Tomb!  

BBAW: Bookstores We Love Part II: Jenners of Life with Books and Mr. Brame of Mr. Brame's Blog.

To celebrate Book Blogger Appreciation Week I invited some of my regular commenters to contribute whatever they wanted to on the theme of bookstores.  Today's guests posts are by Jenners of Life with Books and Mr. Brame of Mr. Brame's Blog.
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First up Jenners from Life with Books:

Inside Xanadu Music and Books, Memphis Tenn.

A reader and a non-reader walk into a bookstore...

You can be forgiven for thinking this is a start of a bad joke. It is in many ways—with the joke being on me (the reader in this scenario).

You see, I’m in a mixed marriage: a reader married to a non-reader. This has caused moments of tension (“You’re not planning on keeping all of these books are you?”) and frustration (“You bought another book? But you already have 50 unread ones?”).

 But nothing has been as frustrating as visiting a bookstore with my non-reader.
 

As any reader knows, a visit to a bookstore is a sacred journey. You don’t just “pop in” and out. You need time (lots of time) to wander through the aisles. You need be able to touch the covers, page through the books that catch your eye, look for all those books on your wish list, find new books to add to your wish list, and review the bargain bins for a hidden treasure. I could spend hours in a bookstore. It is like entering a rip in the time-space continuum: time ceases to exist as I float along happily surrounded by my beloved books.

Xanadu Music and Books in Memphis

My non-reader husband, however, is ready to go in 10 minutes. His method of visiting a bookstore is to check out the travel section (one of the few genres he’ll read) and the magazines. Then he gets antsy and starts checking on me to see if I’m ready to go. (Of course I’m not ready to go!! We just got here. I’m just getting started!!!)

If I find a book (or two or three) that I feel I must have, he’ll scan the barcodes and then tell me that I can buy them cheaper on Amazon. “But I want to buy them now! I have to support book stores!” I’ll cry. (However, it is hard to argue with savings of more than 35%.) He’ll make me put them back—ruining the entire experience. I mean, why visit a bookstore if I’m not allowed to buy the books? It is like putting a cake in front of someone on a diet and saying “Don’t eat this.” Cruel and unusual punishment.

So, to finish the “joke” that I started at the start of this post: A reader and a non-reader walk into a bookstore. And the non-reader ruins the magic for the reader, leading her to exact revenge by sneakily downloading books to her Kindle. (After all, it is easier to hide books on an e-reader and they don’t take up space on the ONE bookshelf the reader is allowed to have.)

Next, Mr. Brame from  Mr. Brame's Blog.

Meet Beverly who runs Xanadu Music and Books
and is usually in better focus than this.

My favorite used bookstore in Memphis is Xanadu Music and Books on Central Avenue, and it's just down the street from Central BBQ, which offers some of the tastiest barbecue in town.  Xanadu is crowded, dark, and usually empty--just what you want in a used bookstore.

This establishment may be better known for the cigar-box guitars that proprietor John Lowe makes and sells there, but I don't really have time for that.  I'm more interested in the shelves, which always have just the book you've always meant to read, but never gotten around to.  

Xanadu is great, and it's cheap, too!  Beverly will do her best to save you a couple of bucks, when she can, but you'd better bring cash--Xanadu ain't got no point-of-sale machine.

BBAW: Bookstores We Love with Alyce from At Home With Books and Trish at Love, Laughter and a Touch of Insanity

This year I decided to ask my regular commenters if they'd join me in a small project for Book Blogger Appreciation Week.  I wanted to focus on bookstores, because to be honest I'm a bit worried about them.  I love bookstores, myself, but I was right to be concerned. Several prodigious book bloggers felt they had to turn down my invitation because they get all their books by mail.  Others simply do not have a bookstore they can go to within a reasonable distance, period.  


But enough agreed to participate to make this experiment a success.  I'll be running their submissions each day but Wednesday this week.  Wednesday will feature an interview with long time book blogger Gautami Tripathy of Everything Distils into Reading.

Now here's  Alyce from At Home With Books:

We have one used bookstore in our town called Second Chance Books.  If I want to go shopping for books anywhere else it involves at least a half hour drive. Since I prefer used bookstores anyway, this is the store I visit most often.

I’ve always loved used bookstores. I like that mixture of old and new books, and the appeal of never knowing exactly what you’re going to find there. It’s like a treasure hunt on every visit; you just don’t always know what the treasure is going to be.

I think the best way to shop at Second Chance Books is not to take a list. I usually try to keep in mind those books on the top of my wish list, just in case I spot them on the shelves, but I prefer to walk in without a plan and roam through the rooms of bookcases. Once in a while this backfires on me and I come with a book I already own.

At this particular store I love that every square foot of space  in the building has been utilized. There are books on shelves up to the top of the tall ceiling, and bookshelves lining the odd shaped hallway in between the rooms.  I’m a rather short (and nearsighted) person - I can’t see the titles on the top shelf even if I lean on the opposite bookcase while tipping my head back. Browsing that top shelf always requires a step-stool and makes me feel a bit like Belle in the gigantic Beauty and the Beast library. (Okay, that is a stretch of the imagination, but pretending is what bookish people like to do, right?)

Sometimes there are pleasant surprises, like brand new books that I wouldn’t have expected to see so soon in a used bookstore in my little town. But my favorite kind of surprise has to be the book that has been mistakenly shelved in a humorous way. I should make a habit of writing them down when I see them, but then I don’t know how many other people would find them as funny as I do.

For example, the last time I was there I found a copy of The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde shelved with the old hardcover classic literature volumes. It made me chuckle (even though I do realize that a customer could have carried it around and left it there on accident).

I have to admit that I am not a collector of old volumes or first editions. The appeal of the used bookstore for me is the thrill of the hunt for good books; the fact that they are cheaper than new books doesn’t hurt either.

Next up: Trish formerly of Trish's Reading Nook now of Love, Laughter and a Touch of Insanity.

When CBJames emailed me to see if I'd be interested in writing a short mini-post on my favorite Brick and Mortar bookstore I immediately thought of the Half Price Books  chain. It's funny because even though there was a Half Price Books close to my house growing up I never ventured in until I was a college student looking for my English books at a discount. I was amazed at the rows and rows of books and delighted to find many of my favorite authors. I couldn't believe I had waited so long!

Since my discovery I make it a habit to stop at Half Price Books whenever I can. When I'm sad, when I'm happy, when I have some extra time to kill. Sometimes every day of the week! I don't even need to buy anything--just simply wandering down the long aisles of books or sitting on the floor in a specific section browsing the titles is so calming and soothing to me. One of the slogans of Half Price Books is "Different Stores, Different Stories" and I love that I always walk into a store not knowing what exactly I'll walk out with.

I'm lucky to work close to the flagship store in Dallas--I've never seen a bookstore like it. It easily rivals any Barnes and Noble or Borders in size, but it is filled with books that people have read and passed on for someone else to experience. Some of my favorite work lunches have included a trip to the "Bookstore Mecca" with coworkers as we race down the aisles to see what we can discover in our limited time. It is a store you can get lost in for hours and the discoveries are endless. Half Price Books is growing growing growing and I urge you to see if there's a location near you. There's nothing like walking into a Half Price Books store, except maybe walking out with that stack of awesome finds.

Thanks from Dakota and me to both Alyce and Trish.  More post to come all this week.

Sunday Salon: Forgive Me, Book Club, For I Have Sinned

The book in question.

I didn't finish the book.  I intended to.  I still intend to.  I really like it so far. I'm just a bit over halfway through.  It's quite good so far.  But I thought it was shorter than it is so I waited until Monday to start it even though I had all summer to read it.  Then my week just got much busier than I expected, what with getting that second job and all.  And this year I'm teaching five periods a day for the first time in quite a few years, and I'm having some trouble adjusting, I admit.

I know you all have put up with my outright refusal to read certain books over the years, i.e. The Red Tent, The Secret Life of Bees and The Help, and that I've been known to stop reading a book outright if I didn't like the first chapter, sometimes the first page.  And that some of you have never forgiven me for making you read Written on the Body or The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, but Written on the Body sounded really good, we all thought so, and I still say you all are flat out wrong about The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.  That is one fine book.  The fact that it made you feel depressed is proof of how good it is.  Bad literature fails to evoke any emotion accept anger at itself.  But I digress, and we've been over this point before.

I did read the first part of the book in one day, over 100 pages.  I hoped the rest would move along just as quickly but the book's focus shifted and the pacing slowed.  I know that's no excuse. Consider it an explanation.

I could have stayed home all day yesterday and did a marathon reading like I used to do when I was an undergraduate.  (I still remember an entire day spent with Tess of the d'Urbervilles.  Just try to put that one down.  Can't be done.)    Unfortunately, C.J. and I had wine tasting on the calendar for yesterday.  It's one of our new things.  This summer we realized that we live one county over from Napa County where people from all over the planet go to sample wines in ridiculously over-the-top settings designed in invoke Tuscany or Provence or some such place.  We decided to make it a monthly destination.  It was fun.  Even if we missed the exit for Napa and ended up in Sonama County instead.  Their wineries are just as good.

So, go ahead, feel free to talk about the ending.  I own my failure.  There's no reason why you all shouldn't be able to discuss the entire thing, just because I'm a slacker with a fondness for over-priced wine.  I'll finish the book anyway.  It really is good so far.  Hopefully, there's no surprise twist in the end that you'll be spoiling today even though you have every right to.  Honestly, I probably would in your shoes.

I hate it when people don't finish the book.

Dakota's Favorites: Notes on Democracy by H.L. Mencken

This post first ran in February of 2009.  I'm a little embarrassed by the things I say below.  Turns out things did not turn out as well as I hoped.  Now facing another presidential election season...well...I've changed my mind about some things.  But, Mencken is even more prescient in retrospect.  Read what he says on fear as the chief motivating factor in a democracy below.  Keep it in mind the next time some one argues that you should vote for a certain candidate solely because his or her opponent would be worse.  Wouldn't you love to have more of a reason than that?

Democracy came to the Western World to the tune of sweet, soft music.

Notes on Democracy by H.L. Mencken published in 1926 must be something of a hard sell these days. The inauguration of Barack Obama as President of the United States seems to stand as a shining example of how well democracy works. A system that can produce a leader of such stature must have something going for it. Mencken would probably beg to differ. And it may do us good to keep in mind democracy's failings even during such a hopeful time. After all, the same system that elected Barack Obama also passed Proposition 8.

Notes on Democracy provides a clear-headed, skeptical view of American politics and the democratic system. Menken begins with this premise: "The average man doesn't want to be free. He simply wants to be safe." Mencken would not be at all surprised to hear the use of torture justified as necessary to keep ourselves safe from terrorists. He would expect us to willingly surrender our freedom rather than face even the slightest sense of danger. Would you allow government agents to randomly search people on the street who are neither charged with a crime nor suspected of committing a crime? Would you allow these random searches to include strip searches? What if the government told you these searches were necessary to insure safe air-travel?

Mencken believes that the main motivating factor in democracy is fear. He believes that fear has been used since the founding of America to motivate the mass of voters, whom he calls the mob. Leaders have always and will always use fear to convince the mob to trade away its rights and to support causes that will harm it in the end and to enter wars it could have avoided. He is worth quoting at length about this:

Fear remains the chiefest of them. The demagogues, i.e., the professors of mob psychology, who flourish in democratic states are well aware of the fact, and make it the corner-stone of their exact and puissant science. Politics under democracy consists almost wholly of the discovery, chase and scotching of bugaboos. The statesman becomes, in the last analysis, a mere witch-hunter, a glorified smeller and snooper, eternally chanting "Fe, Fi, Fo, Fum!" It has been so in the United States since the earliest days. The whole history of the country has been a history of melodramatic pursuits of horrendous monsters, most of them imaginary: the red-coats, the Hessians, the monocrats, again the red-coats, the Banks, the Catholics, Simon Legree, the Slave Power, Jeff Davis, Mormonism, Wall Street, the rum demon, John Bull, the hell hounds of plutocracy, the trusts, General Weyler, Pancho Villa, German spies, hyphenates, the Kaiser, Bolshevism. The list might be lengthened indefinitely; a complete chronicle of the Republic could be written in terms of it, and without omitting a single important episode. It was long ago observed that the plain people, under democracy, never vote for anything, but always against something.

Add to this list civil rights activists, feminists, drugs, terrorists and gay marriage and you bring Mencken's thesis up to the present. Mencken wrote Notes on Democracy after seeing how the mob of voters could be manipulated into passing Prohibition, surely the single most hypocritical piece of legislation in the country's history. Anti-saloon leagues played upon the fears of the mob; religious leaders used their pulpits the pressure state legislatures into passing a law that took away property rights, closed businesses, and turned a majority of Americans into criminals. Mencken also covered the famous Scopes trial in Tennessee which charged a man with the crime of teaching evolution. (It would do us all well to remember that was a crime with a prison sentence as punishment less than 100 years ago.) These two events as well as his years as a Baltimore reporter provide the foundation for the views he expresses in Notes on Democracy. But his sense of humor and his way with words make the book a pleasureable read. He is like an acidy Mark Twain. Humorous, but as forgiving.

Mencken would probably look around today, and find that not much has changed. Personally, I'm not sure I would agree, but reading Notes on Democracy forces one to take a hard look at the system, to see that what we hold as dear may not be as good as we want it to be. It's probably like going to a parent conference and finding out that your favorite child is really not all that nice to the other kids on the playground. How you react to the news will determine what kind of adult that child grows up to be. Disregard that sort of bad news at your peril. President Obama said in his inaugural address that America is a young country but that it is now time to put away childish things. Perhaps we can prove Mencken wrong and move beyond our fears towards our better natures. Surely, the time has come.

Back in 2009 Dakota and I gave this book away to one lucky winner.  Here's a video of the drawing.  Dakota is a bit grayer than she was two years ago, but still going strong.    Me too.

The Last Innocent Year: America in 1964 the Beginning of the "Sixties" by Jon Margolis

At the last minute, Lyndon Johnson 

decided to go to the Oval Office.

Opening to chapter one of 

The Last Innocent Year 

by Jon Margolis

It's an odd thing for an author to disavow his chosen title in the introduction, but that's just what Jon Margolis does in his account of America in 1964, The Last Innocent Year.  A nation like America cannot seriously consider itself to have ever been innocent, according to Mr. Margolis.  After all, America began as a slave society determined to exterminate the people who got here first.  One need not feel guilty about this history to recognize it and to acknowledge its inconsistency with innocence, argues Mr. Margolis.

The argument of Mr. Margolis's book is that while America was never truly innocent, Americans were able to indulge in a delusion of innocence that ended in 1964.  The events of that year and their long lasting effect on American society were certainly profound; whether or not they destroyed America's belief in its own innocence, they certainly changed the country.

While many things happened between the assassination of President John Kennedy, where Mr. Margolis' book begins, to the presidential election the following November, 1964 is at heart the story of Lyndon Johnson.  1964 saw the passage of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, the arrival of The Beatles in America, the rise of Barry Goldwater conservatism in the Republican Party, the beginnings of the feminist movement, the free-speech movement and the hippies, the murders of civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, and the Tonkin Bay offensive in Vietnam that paved the way for full-scale U.S. military involvement in South East Asia.  


All of this, and more, is covered in Mr. Margolis's entertaining and enlightening book, but the star of the show, the man of the year, is clearly Lyndon Johnson.  Like Richard Nixon who followed him, Lyndon Johnson made tape recordings of just about every conversation that took place in the Oval Office, both in person and via telephone.  Mr. Margolis does not state whether or not he had access to these tapes, but his detailed descriptions of the negotiations President Johnson had with congressmen involved in passing the Civil and Voting Rights Acts suggests he has made use of the tapes.  Johnson is known as a president who could get bills passed and  he does.  It's refreshing to read about a president who is able to push his agenda through a reluctant congress.  Very refreshing.  Even if part of that agenda included expansion of the U.S. role in Vietnam.  


Some historians, like Mr. Margolis, believe that certain points in history, certain years, are pivotal ones.  Mr. Margolis makes a strong case for the importance of 1964 in American history.  Whatever side you come down on the current political divide, whether you long for a Lyndon Johnson or a Barry Goldwater, even if you're more interested in the music scene than politics or history, you'll find both rewards and food for thought in The Last Innocent Year.   It's the sort of entertaining history that I wish we had read in high school, the sort that breaths life into the story it tells.  

Tuesdays with Dorothy

Well, Aimee Semple McPherson has written a book. And were you to call it a little peach, you would not be so much as scratching its surface. It is the story of her life, and it is called In the Service of the King, which title is perhaps a bit dangerously suggestive of a romantic novel. It may be that this autobiography is set down in sincerity, frankness and simple effort. It may be, too, that the Statue of Liberty is situated in Lake Ontario.


Dorothy Parker "Our Lady of the Loudspeaker" in The New Yorker (1928-02-25)




Prince wrote a song about Dorothy Parker, "The Ballad of Dorothy Parker" for his album Sign o'the Times in 1987.

Sunday Salon: Stepped up Your Game

Did everyone's blog become more interesting after school started?

Because I was gone for almost two months last summer, this year I decided to stay home which meant I had lots of time to keep up with all of the blogs I follow.  I thoroughly enjoyed myself, too.  But everyone stepped up their game this week.

It's the second week of the school year, so I'm very busy, like most teachers, with very little time for keeping up with book blogs.  So why is it that all of the little blurbs on my sidebar suddenly became irresistible?  When I found myself with a little spare time, I checked here to see if there were any blog posts I absolutely had to read and found just about every one was.  You all really stepped up your game this week, when I really didn't have time to read anybody.

I hope to have some time to play catch up, maybe tomorrow, but there is a stack of papers I have to read and I just got a second job that I'll have to start preparing for.  I'll be teaching a weekend cram course for prospective history teachers studying to take the CSET exam which must be passed if you want to teach history in California public schools.  I think it will be fun, but it will mean less time for books and book blogs.

But, maybe an hour today and an hour tomorrow....

Friday Picture Reading - Alfred Hitchcock reads Rebecca

Alfred Hitchcock reads Rebecca