A Teetering, Tottering Tower of Books

Grand Southern Literary Tour 2013

October 20 - October 27

A Tower of Books and...

...a Tower-ette of Books

Second Read Books

Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James

Cross Creek by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

St. Augustine, Florida

Anastasia Books

As We Were by E.F. Benson

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

Jeeves and the Tie That Binds by P.G. Wodehouse

St. Augustine, Florida

Color illustration from Anne of Green Gables

E. Shaver, bookseller

Note Cards of Savannah by local artist

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil autographed by

author John Berendt (I had it gift wrapped as a present to myself!)

Charlotte's Web (hardcover edition) by E.B. White

Savannah, Georgia

The Book Lady

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America by Bill Bryson

The Bedside Guardian Volumes 28, 30, 33, and 35

Savannah, Georgia

Hattie's Books

On Love and Barley

Haiku of Basho

Brunswick, Georgia

Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site

Carl Sandburg Home - The Official National Park Handbook

My Connemara by Paula Steichen (Sandburg's granddaughter)

Chicago Poems - Carl Sandburg

Flat Rock, North Carolina

Joy of Books

The Grits (Girls Raised in the South) Guide to Life by Deborah Ford

Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon

Hendersonville, North Carolina

Robie Books

Books Notes: America's Finest Authors on Reading, Writing and the Power of Ideas

Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley

Great Modern Short Stories (1942) - Selected by Bennett Cerf

Postmark Paris: A Story in Stamps by Leslie Jonath

The Frozen Thames by Helen Humphries

Berea, Kentucky

Savannah, Georgia - October 24, 2013

We struck pay dirt today in Savannah. Two bookstores and eight books. I had to restrain myself! But I did find some gems.

E. Shaver, bookseller 
OK, I broke down and bought a new, autographed hardcover edition of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt. I was prompted to buy because we had just toured the Mercer-Williams house which was the home of Jim Williams, the fellow featured in the book and the movie. I also purchased a new hardcover edition of Charlotte's Web by E.B. White to replace my paperback copy. And I bought a box of notecards featuring pen and ink drawings of Savannah landmarks.

Turns out the owner, Esther Shaver, used to own a bookstore in Louisville, my hometown. Small world.

Books stacked on a staircase in The Book Lady

The Book Lady
This is just the type of place that one wants a used bookstore to be: a bit crowded and a bit comfortable. Worn leather sofa, plenty of chairs to pull up to shelves, and helpful assistants. I bought two books by Bill Bryson (The Lost Continent to replace the copy I gave to my brother and a hardcover edition of A Short History of Nearly Everything) and four volumes of The Bedside Guardian - 1978/79; 1980/81; 1983/84; and 1985/86. These contain columns, reviews, and cartoons from this London newspaper. I don't know where I heard of these anthologies, but I have never seen them in a bookstore. I could barely contain myself and instead of trying to pick one volume I just went ahead and bought all of the four on the shelf. The introductions are by John Cleese, William Golding, Peter Ustinov, and Salman Rushdie. I am excited to see what treasures I will discover in these volumes!

Shelves of vintage books decorate Gryphon restaurant

Gryphon
This was the place we wandered into for lunch. I looked about me and there were books all over the place. The building used to be a pharmacy, then a college bookstore, and now is a restaurant and is somehow connected with Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). Our bill came stuck between the pages of a book! A perfect complement to the Grand Southern Literary Tour.