New Year's Resolution

Okay, it's a bit early for one, but I've done a lot of rambling about books and bookstores recently, but not very much about what I'm doing to work towards actually opening one, which is, y'know, what this blog is supposed to be all about.

A friend of mine attended some of the programs at The Center for Women and Enterprise last year, and she loved it. I've been hemming and hawing and thinking about going, myself, but have yet to sign up. Mostly, I've been thinking that I have time, no worries. But, well, this blog's coming up on a year old, and aside from trying to pay down some bills, I don't know that I've accomplished all that much towards opening a bookstore.

It would be nice to post about something I've learned, or progress made - even though my job sends me to regional trade shows, I don't always have the time to attend the bookselling sessions. When prospective booksellers are sitting in a room learning about the perils and pitfalls of owning a store, I'm usually busy opening boxes with my Swiss Army Knife and trying to make the tables look presentable for when the floor opens.

Five minutes ago, I signed up for the December 6th info session. It's more than a month away, and I'll probably wait until January to take actual classes, but it's a start.

Oh, Good Lord.

The Harry-banning isn't over yet. A pastor at St. Joseph's School in Wakefield, MA, has yanked the books off of the library shelves because "themes of witchcraft and sorcery were inappropriate for a Catholic school."

From the Globe article:

"He said that he thought most children were strong enough to resist the temptation," said one mother who asked that her name not be used because she did not want her family to be singled out. "But he said it's his job to protect the weak and the strong."

Resist what temptation? There aren't exactly any instructions on, say "How to Hold a Black Mass" in there. Or "Host a Seance in 12 Easy Steps!" I can't imagine this pastor has actually even read the books. Does he think his students are going to run around, pointing sticks (eleven-and-a-half inches, birch and unicorn hair, springy) at doors and shouting "Alohomora"?

Okay, so they might. But they'd be pretending, because that's what kids do. You give them a book (or a TV show, or a video game) that stirs their imaginations and they'll play in that world. It's part of growing up. It doesn't mean they're sacrificing cats or trying to raise the devil.

What, is he afraid alohomora might actually work?

And why now, after the series is over? From this article, it looks like the series might have been featured in the sixth grade's summer reading list, but it's hard to believe he's only hearing about Harry Potter now, because of the reading list. The first book was published nearly ten years ago; they've been bestsellers from very early on.

When we heard the news report this morning, my husband and I figured it was more likely they were being pulled because of Rowling's revelation that Dumbledore was gay.** However, the banning happened a month ago, well before her announcement late last week. I'm guessing it won't help get the books back onto the shelves, but it wasn't the original reason. I'm not sure why it's taken a month for the story to break.

The parents seem to have mixed feelings about it - some are angry, some agree with the ban, some support "the spirit" of what the pastor did. I'll be interested to see what the kids' responses will be.



**The reason I didn't blog about that is because Neil Gaiman sums it up nicely over at his journal. Short version: there are always things authors know about their characters that don't make it into the books, and don't ever have to because those things aren't important to the story. Dumbledore's sexual orientation is one of those things.

What I Did on My Autumn Vacation

About a week and a half ago, my husband and I went up to North Conway, NH, for our anniversary. We did all sorts of neat non-book-related things that will eventually go up on the other blog. As Friday afternoon grew steadily more rainy and gloomy, we sought out White Birch Books. We'd been to North Conway once before, in mid-February a few years ago. Then, we'd walked all along one side of the street, poking our heads into the shops. Just as I thought my nose was about to freeze off and it was time to turn back, we stumbled across the bookstore.

Inside is gorgeous. I'm not sure if it was originally a house that was renovated to become a bookstore, or if it's always been a bookstore that looks like a house. I didn't think to ask while I was there. Check out the virtual tour and you'll see what I mean.

I hadn't brought a book with me for the trip. I'm sure I could have opened the trunk of my car and found any number of ARCs in there from previous trade shows, but I wanted something new. Starting at one end of the fiction section, I moseyed along, reading titles, peering at covers, sometimes picking a book off the shelf and looking at descriptions, but I had no idea what I was in the mood to read.

There was one book I happened across, paused to look at, and put back - its title had jogged my memory about another book I'd heard good things about, but - horror of horrors - the name escaped me. I continued poking along, and when nothing else really caught my fancy, I went back to the one I'd looked at for a while.

I took my copy of The City of Dreaming Books up to the register, and while they were ringing it up, I got to play a game of bookseller mnemonics.

"So, I'm looking for this book," said I. "I don't know if it was a bestseller, but I think it was a booksense pick a while back. I know it was about books, or about a bookseller, and it had the word 'glass' in the title."

They didn't remember it right off, but it sounded tip-of-the-tongue familiar, and came up with the title pretty quickly: The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters. It's coming in paperback soon. Another to add to the to-be-read pile.

The City of Dreaming Books, by the way, is very good so far. I'm not quite sure what I'd call it. Literary fantasy? Years ago, the main character's authorial godfather (yes, godparents whose duty it is to give you a good background in books. DO WANT) was sent a manuscript. It was the best piece of work he'd ever read. He sent the author to Bookholm - a city devoted to all things book-related, with 24-hour antiquarian bookstores and catacombs of lost classics hidden underground - to find a publisher. The author disappeared. On his deathbed, godfather sends godson to find the author. I'm not terribly far in, but I'm hooked.

Oh,and by the way, the protagonist is a dinosaur.

How Cool is This?

Chronicle Books sent ten employees to New Orleans to work with Habitat for Humanity.

A lot of publishers will match their employees' charitable donations. This is a step above. I would love, love, love to do something like this.

Check out their blog from the experience. It's touching and funny, and reminds us that there is still a ton of work to be done, post-Katrina.

I don't know that I'd ever be able to do something on this scale when I open a store, but I will certainly support my employees' involvement in the community - local, national and global.

Nobel Prize for Literature - Doris Lessing

I've been hearing the announcements all week, and this morning, caught the news that Doris Lessing has won the Nobel Prize for Literature. She's the 11th woman to be awarded the prize, and in the committee's words is "that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny."

I'm adding Mara and Dann to my to-be-read list (which is already several miles long, but still...) Hooray for more far-future/post-apocalyptic fiction!

Also, her agent said she was out shopping when the prize was announced. For some reason, this is making me grin - chances are, she was out shopping for food or clothes, but imagine being in a bookstore and hearing it there.

To Add to the To-Read List

November's Book Sense Picks have been announced. I very much need to get my hands on a copy of How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read, just from the title alone.

I very much wish that I could link to a blurb about the book over at Booksense, but unfortunately, the way the site is set up, you have to pick a local bookstore before you can see book info. If they ever do an overhaul of the site, that's the one thing I'd love to see them change - let us peek at the book, then choose a local store to buy it from. There might be rhyme and reason as to why it's not like that currently, but I haven't gone asking.

I owe so many book reviews on here. I haven't forgotten, honest.

Kindred Spirits Across the Pond

These two booksellers found out in August that the Waterstones they worked at was closing, and they decided not to let that be the end.

They put their heads (and a business plan) together and are in the process of opening their own bookstore. You can be damned sure I'll be following their progress.

Stephen King is a Wise Man

When I was looking for something to read on my way out to GLBA, I blinked up at the Best American Short Stories 2007 collection for a moment. Edited by Stephen King, how could I go wrong?

But I already had two books in my hands - Neuromancer and Cormac McCarthy's The Road. The latter came highly recommended here, and since three of her favorite books - The Stand, The Time Traveler's Wife, and The Handmaid's Tale - also make my own top ten list,** I passed up King's choices for The Road. I wasn't disappointed.

King's piece in last Sunday's New York Times Book Review touches upon short stories in the present day, and how it's getting harder and harder to find them, or at least to find them easily accessible when you're poking about in a bookstore. Magazines that carry great fiction have been relegated to lower and lower shelves as flashier celebrity-filled pages demand more space.

It's something to think on, for when Books That Don't Suck opens its doors. Our magazine shelves at my old store had three sections. You could probably take a look at what was displayed where to see the interests of the employees - Fangoria and Zoetrope were in places of reverence, in the top two sections, while fashion magazines and things like Teen Beat hung out on the bottom shelves.

I know a hypothetical magazine section in a hypothetical bookstore doesn't do much for the state of short fiction collections right now, but this is definitely something I'll keep in mind in future days.

And I have to go pick up a copy of the Best American Short Stories 2007, sooner rather than later.

**The other three I just haven't gotten around to yet, but I loved Eugenides' The Virgin Suicides, so we'll call it three and a half.

Banned Books Week

This year, Banned Books Week 2007 runs from September 29th through October 6th. We're two days in - my apologies for not posting on Saturday (I was off being a bookseller.)

These next few days celebrate our freedom to read and raise awareness about who would try and take that freedom away. Every year, all over the country, people are challenging books because they've deemed them inappropriate. Sometimes it's a parent who doesn't want his/her child reading a title for school. Sometimes it's someone who doesn't have kids, but wants to "protect" young minds. Others, it's not even a book on a school reading list - it might be a book that someone doesn't even want on the shelves of a bookstore for anyone - of any age - to read.

American Booksellers for Freedom of Expression has a list of banned books (and the stories behind the bans/challenges) here.

The American Library Association has their own page for Banned Books Week, and a list of events for Banned Books Week with a shiny interactive map for finding events in your area.

A quick list of ALA Banned Books links:

• The most challenged book of 2006
  
• The ten most challenged books of 2006
  
• The 100 most frequently challenged books, 1990-2000
  
• The most frequently challenged authors of 2006
  

If you haven't spent an afternoon in a bookstore this week, now's a good time to go to your local indie and ask them to recommend a banned book for you to go home and curl up with.

If You Don't Think I Suck

...and want to see non-book related ramblings, I've set up a little home away from home called L'esprit d'escalier over at my much neglected, never really used website. I figured since I'm paying for the hosting, it should maybe go to some kind of good (or at least mediocre) use.

That way, when I want to blog about things that have nothing to do with bookselling, I don't feel so guilty going off on a tangent here. So, there's not much there just yet, but go on over and take a peek if you'd like. You don't even have to bring a housewarming gift.