Cause for Celebration

This AP photograph is a book lover's dream. We have a president-elect who looks awfully comfortable carrying a book around! Not a Kindle, not a file, not a newspaper......a real live, paper and print book. Here is a favorite quote from Barack Obama:

"I believe that if we want to give our children the best possible chance in life, if we want to open the doors of opportunity while they're young and teach them the skills they'll need to succeed later on, then one of our greater responsibilities as citizens, as educators and as parents is to insure that every American child can read and read well. That's because literacy is the most basic currency of the knowledge economy that we're living in today."

Books for the Holidays

Shopping for the holidays in this troubled economy can be stressful. One avid reader and book blogger has decided to address this by encouraging people to buy books for the holidays. Books make wonderful gifts, are relatively inexpensive (compared to an iPod anyway) and are memorable. Check out the blog, aptly titled Buy Books for the Holidays. It has book suggestions and ideas for non-readers alike. You can post questions about books for cousins and nephews and bosses. Within minutes, book bloggers from far and wide will be back to you with titles and authors for the most difficult person on your list. This makes shopping relatively painless. Just make a list of titles, visit your local independent bookstore and you are ready to enjoy your eggnog knowing that you have found the perfect gift for everyone!

A Small Good Thing

Sometimes a book does not have to have bombs bursting and wars breaking out and bad guys lurking at every turn. Sometimes the story of an everyday life is satisfying and spellbinding. The story of the man who runs the corner store or the woman who has too many kids can help us to remember that everyone, no matter how seemingly mundane their life, has a story.

I just finished reading Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo. While there are a few fist fights and dramatic scenes, the story focuses mostly on the very quiet lives of the Lynch family. Lou and his son, the unfortunately nicknamed, Lucy, are large men who see the world as a good place. For Lou, a successful man must be a man that is well liked. When bad things happen he contiunually repeats, "I just don't understand". The Lynch men marry women who have a less favorable view of humanity, yet they stay with these optimistic men no matter how exasperating that may be.

Richard Russo writes so beautifully of small town life. He knows the towns that are teetering on the edge of extinction due to the closure of a factory. He knows the divisions between the classes and the races. Russo writes almost tenderly of these fallible, very human people. You come away from reading his books with the feeling that you would know his characters if you met them on the street. And seeing inside a character so deeply, is for me, a small good thing.

Overheard in the Bookstore

One customer to another customer:

"She likes all kinds of books. You know....both friction and non-friction."

As long as you keep reading (whatever you want to call it), I'm happy!

Saratoga

I just returned from a library conference in Saratoga, New York. It is a beautiful little town that was temporarily overrun by librarians who were there for the annual New York Library Association conference and lawyers there for an American Bar Association meeting.

Over the years I have been to many bookseller's conventions. I have gone to the big Book Expos with their numerous vendors and fancy luncheons and noted authors. I have also attended the smaller, regional conferences where you have time to meet other booksellers and learn a little about how they survive the business. It was fun to compare the booksellers to the librarians. The similarities kind of suprised me.

Female booksellers and librarians do not tend to wear really high heels, maybe it is all that time spent walking among shelves of books. Both booksellers and librarians tend to stop in the middle of streets, hotel halls and restaurant lobbies to discuss something that gets them excited. Booksellers and librarians seem to really enjoy complimentary chocolate at display booths (much more than free pencils). Booksellers and librarians also really like free books, although the librarians are much more civilized and even wait to be invited before taking advance reading copies from a publisher.

Mostly, booksellers and librarians love books and people who like books. They get excited about new ways to get information out to people (though booksellers are, in general, not too thrilled about the popularity of the Kindle). Since I am both a bookseller and a librarian, I will admit that we are a quirky bunch of people that value words and knowledge over many other things that normal folks think is important. Oh yeah....it seems that the majority of us wear glasses.