My Bookstore: Writers Celebrate Their Favorite Places to Browse, Read, and Shop

My Bookstore, with an introduction by Richard Russo, is a wonderful 'dip into' book. In it, eighty-four writers describe their favorite bookstores. So the reader gets to visit many places he or she might never get to in real life. A great armchair travel book for those of us who love to read.

I first read the entries on the five or six stores that I had visited - one here in my hometown by Wendell Berry who writes, [Carmichael's] has the quietness, the smell, the tangibility that a bookstore ought to have. 

I would have to agree. 

Then I read about all the bookstores in North Carolina, and there are six featured,  in preparation for what just might be The Second Grand Southern Literary Tour. 

Next, I started reading by writer. So I discovered that Rick Bragg (All Over But the Shoutin') likes The Alabama Booksmith in Birmingham for the simple reason that there are no cats here. Ann Patchett (State of Wonder), on her first visit to McLean & Eakin Booksellers in Petoskey, Michigan, fell in love with the town - a dreamy, shady place on the lake - and then immediately its bookstore. Isabelle Allende (The House of the Spirits), calls Book Passage in Corte Madera, California, her personal book store and writes, The only place as comforting as a friendly bookstore is probably your grandmother's kitchen.

Of course, these authors are preaching to the choir and yet it is a cozy way to get a bookstore fix. Some are located in strip malls. Some are urban, while others are suburban. Some bookstores are brand new, others are quite ancient. There are those where one can sip espresso while reading and others that offer bottles of maple syrup for sale at the register. But however quirky, all the store owners have books and a love of reading in common.

One of the nice aspects of the book is that there an illustration of each store at the beginning of its chapter. And in the back of the book, there is a list by state of each store featured. Very helpful for anyone planning a trip.

A Book-filled Weekend

Woman Reading
by
John Keaton

This will be short and sweet as I am trying to carve time out to actually read this weekend. I have four books going:

Crampton Hodnet by Barbara Pym - Not as engaging as the first-person narrative of A Glass of Blessings which I just finished, but many cups of tea will be enjoyed I am sure.  The two main characters, the elderly and bossy Miss Doggett and her companion the younger and very plain Miss Morrow, have taken in as a renter the new curate, the handsome, red-haired Reverend Stephen Latimer. Love in sure to follow.

My Bookstore: Writers Celebrate Their Favorite Places to Browse, Read, and Shop - I have just read the entries on the five or six bookstores I have visited myself. Next I think I will read by state what these eight-four writers have to say about their favorite places to find a good book. 

Sacré Bleu by Christopher Moore - This is a mystery about the supposed murder of Vincent Van Gogh investigated in nineteenth century France by an aspiring painter, Lucien Lessard, and his friend Henri Toulouse-Lautrec.

A Fatal Winter by G.M. Malliet - This is the second by the author in her Max Tudor mysteries. This one concerns the murder of a wealthy, bitter old man. The suspects number many as Oscar, the victim, had called all of his family to his castle for Christmas.

A Fatal Winter and My Bookstore

This is the Ides of March, which was originally celebrated as the start of the Roman new year with all sorts of revelries, but later got a bad reputation - Beware! - when Julius Caesar was assassinated on this date.

It turns out to be an auspicious day for me as two of the books I had on reserve at the library have become available. Just in time too, as the books I checked out last Friday are ready to be returned - one read, one abandoned.

A Fatal Winter by G.M. Malliet - This is the second in the series with Max Tudor, the dreamy vicar and former MI-5 agent. In this book, Max investigates two murders in his English village of Nether Monkslip.  I enjoyed the first in the series, Wicked Autumn, and look forward to seeing what Max is up to now. I also enjoy Malliet's Inspector St. Just mysteries.

My Bookstore: Writers Celebrate Their Favorite Places to Browse, Read, and Shop - I recently bought this book and then had to return it as the gutter (inside margin) was so tight I couldn't read the pages without breaking the spine. I am in hopes that this won't be the case with the volume from the library. There are essays by Rick Bragg, Fanny Flagg, Wendell Berry, Simon Winchester and others. 

I am set for the weekend. What are you reading?

It's All in the Gutter

The gutter 

Yesterday was a rainy day. I had to be out running an errand and so treated myself to a visit to the independent bookstore in my neighborhood. (Aren't I lucky?)

On display was My Bookstore: Writers Celebrate Their Favorite Places to Browse, Read, and Shop edited by Ronald Rice. Since the very bookstore I was standing in was featured along with others from my Grand Southern Literary Tour, I plopped the book on the counter and pulled out my credit card.

There are 84 stores and 84 writers in all. The writers include Rick Bragg, Pico Iyer, Wendell Berry, Laurie R. King, and Ann Patchett. 

The bookstores include Powell's in Portland, Prairie Lights in Iowa City, and The Bookloft in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.  Pretty much coast to coast. 

I carefully protected by treasure from the rain as I tripped lightly through puddles to my car, eager to get home and inspect the book more closely.

And therein lies the problem.

I don't know if it is just my particular copy or if the publisher was trying to save money, but the gutter - inside margin - on the book is so tight that I can't read the text without either cracking the spine or twisting my neck into a very uncomfortable position. This will never do.

I measured. The inside margin is less than one-quarter of an inch. On several other of my books, that inside margin is about one-half an inch. That makes a huge difference. 

So back to the bookstore I will go. I will try to exchange it if there is another in stock that is not cut so tightly. If that is the case, you will be hearing more about this book very soon. If I have to return it, then it may be a while before the book and I meet again. 

I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

March 1, 2013 Follow up:
My Bookstore had to be returned. All the copies in stock had the same tight gutter. I have since put the book on reserve at the library in hopes that the flaw was just in the particular run that ended up at the bookstore.