BEA 2009

Somewhere in this throng are a few foot-weary representatives of The Open Book. This year's annual BookExpo was a bit more subdued than previous years, but it was still a mass of booksellers and books and authors and librarians and, and, and... I came home with some great new books, and some orders for new products for the store. I was even quoted in Publisher's Weekly about Pat Conroy's new book. I got to meet Sara Dessen and Eileen Goudge and Nancy Grace and Sherman Alexie. As alway, meeting the authors whose work rests on the shelves of the store is a thrill.

This event gives me a sense of excitement about bookselling and reading. And although it has been a rough year for The Open Book and a rough year for the publishing industry (lets face it, it has been a hard year for everyone), writers are still writing and publishers are still excited to promote those writers. Even with thousands of people crowding the aisles and the overpriced food of the Javits center making a hole in the budget, during BEA we all get together to celebrate books and the people who love them.

The Sweet Smell of Books

I have been reading The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon for weeks. I loved The Shadow of the Wind by the same author, and I expected to love this new book as well. And I do. The language is so rich and the use of words so unusual, that I just have to walk slowly through the story. I have tabbed pages and underlined passages. It is one of those books that makes you want to linger over the last pages so you will not have to say goodbye.

Both of Zafon's books have made me want to visit Barcelona. The city is such a strong presence in both books. Zafon's other obssession in both books is books. He writes with such passion about books and writing and the love of reading. For a bookseller/librarian, he hits the right note with his respect for the written word and those who sell it. At one point one of his characters enters into a bookshop and he writes: "He held the shop door open and showed me in. I stepped into the bookshop and breathed in that perfume of paper and magic that strangely no one had ever thought of bottling."

Oddly enough, earlier this week I had been reading another book blog (which I would link to if I could remember where I found it) and found out that someone has actually made a perfume based upon the smell of books. A company called CB I Hate Perfume has bottled a scent called "In the Library" which is described by its creator as "English Novel taken from a Signed First Edition of one of my very favorite novels, Russian & Moroccan leather bindings, worn cloth and a hint of wood polish." I may just have to do a little shopping......

What Would Pippi Do?

This is me as a child, down to the saddle shoes, I swear. Try to get me to come to dinner or to feed the dog.....just try. My head was always in a book and my mind deeply involved in the plot. I was with Alice in Wonderland or Freckles in the Limberlost. I was Jo in Little Women or Nancy Drew chasing criminals or Claudia in the Metropolitan Museum of Art trying to solve the mystery of the angel. I was lucky to have a mother who figured out that any communication was impossible when there was a book in my hand.

So when I saw this article on Jezebel about terms inspired by the ladies of children's literature, I wanted to pass it on. I especially like "Granger Danger" because it describes behavior I exhibit much too often. Click on the link, revisit your favorite fictional kids book characters and imagine how useful they can be for your everyday vocabulary.