My Bookstore: Writers Celebrate Their Favorite Places to Browse, Read, and Shop edited by Ronald Rice

By Kate Phillips

          For readers and writers planning summer vacations, check out My Bookstore: Writers Celebrate Their Favorite Places to Browse, Read, and Shop, edited by Ronald Rice and Booksellers Across America, published in 2012). There are eighty-one independent bookstores in thirty-six states to choose from as an added bonus to or as the main purpose of any trip.

          After reading the fantastic tributes by writers like Isabel Allende, Wendell Berry, Meg Waite Clayton, Fannie Flagg, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Pete Hamill, Ann Hood, Mameve Medwed, Ann Patchett, Chuck Palahniuk, Michael Tisserand, Luis Alberto Urrea, Abraham Verghese, Terry Tempest Williams, and Simon Winchester, not surprisingly, I want to visit all of the bookstores. Luckily, two are within an hour of my home. On the next trip to see my dad, we will visit the one within an hour of his home.

Then I will branch out with friends and other family members in tow. I think we could visit maybe ten or twelve more in daylong trips from their homes—only one or two a day so we have plenty of time to browse, read, and shop once we arrive. That is the point after all.

All of these tributes mention the importance of the book-loving owners and knowledgeable staff. Beautifully summed up by Ann Haywood Leal in her tribute starting on page 201: “Finding a book a home in someone’s heart is a talent. They may not know it, but…the staff of Bank Square Books [Mystic, Connecticut] are in the business of matchmaking.”

Some excerpts from the tributes:

The floors have to creak, of course. There should be a bit of a chill inside—not dank, or damp, but enough to bring on thoughts of curling up somewhere with one of the bound companions. If the table displays, favorite picks, and the like have a quirky randomness to them, in defiance of the latest imperatives from publishers, all the better…

All of this you take for granted at The Elliot Bay Book Company in Seattle.

                                                Timothy Egan (page 88)

At Watchung Booksellers [in Montclair, New Jersey] there’s a daily rhythm to the life of books. Kids are running around—a bookstore like this is where kids are first brought into the wider world of reading—and there are the sounds of conversations about books, and the humming quiet of the browsers, and the crisp tearing and folding of gift-wrap paper at the counter, and it smells like books, with that fresh, subtly seductive smell. Independent bookstores such as Margot’s [owner] collaborate with writing in such an intimate way that makes cyber bookselling seem merely retail.

                                      Ian Frazier (page 119)

…The event is an author series called Book Your Lunch, and it’s the brainchild of bookseller Jill Hendrix, owner of Fiction Addiction an independent bricks-and-mortar bookstore in my hometown of Greenville, South Carolina. Book Your Lunch is a fantastic way to bring readers and a wide range of authors together—from mystery writers, to award-winning novelists, to non-fiction and cookbook authors. Fiction Addiction sells tickets in advance, and the featured author reads from her work, or gives a short talk, followed by a Q&A session, a delicious lunch, and then an on-site book signing.

                                                          Mindy Friddle (page 121)

Some of the writers of the eighty-two tributes may not be familiar to readers. All of the essays end with writer bios, listings of their books/works, and/or website addresses. (While 84 writers wrote tributes, two were collaborations and The Strand in New York City received two tributes so in total eighty-one bookstores are celebrated.)

As if dream bookstores and writers new and familiar to readers weren’t enough to delight readers of this book, within the essays many of the writers mention their favorite authors.

What more could a reader ask for? Well, I do wish the bookstores’ addresses, phone numbers, and websites were listed at the end of the essays or in the Bookstores by Location index on pages 375-378. Not hard to find online, but still it would have been better in the book.

Whether you are traveling or not this summer, My Bookstore is plain fun--fabulous destinations and numerous book suggestions for readers. It’s almost as good as visiting one of these treasured bookstores!

                     

By the Book: Writers on Literature and the Literary Life from The New York Times Book Review edited by Pamela Paul

By Kate Phillips

 

          We all want to know more about our favorite authors and writers. What inspires them? What are they reading? What books don’t they like? Who are their literary idols? Which authors would they invite to a dinner party? And which three books would they take to the proverbial deserted island?

          By the Book: Writers on Literature and the Literary Life from The New York Times Book Review Edited and with an Introduction by Pamela Paul, editor of the Book Review, answers these questions—and many more.

          Sixty-five authors, writers, and others with literary lives answer a variety of questions giving fans and other writers not only insights but reading recommendations. If you like a certain author, does it follow you will like whatever he or she reads? It’s fun to find out.

          I have read books and pieces by over half of the writers. Naturally, I read their interviews first.

I loved learning Pippi Longstocking inspired Anne Lamott to become a writer. (However, Amy Tan found Pippi too cheerful.) And that A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L’Engle, changed Lamott’s life. (Mine, too.) It’s also Dan Brown’s favorite book of all time. He highly recommends What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell who highly recommends Lee Child who plans on reading Emma by Jane Austen next. (That surprised me.)

          I have not read Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg, but her favorite childhood character is Meg Murray, the heroine of A Wrinkle in Time. Sandberg highly recommends books by Michael Lewis, as does Malcolm Gladwell, and she most wants to meet JK Rowling—whose book The Cuckoo’s Calling Gladwell chose not to finish.

          This book is a great version of “Six Degrees” usually of Kevin Bacon, but this time with writers.

          I also like knowing more about where others write. However, only four writers had their answers published:

Carl Hiaasen: The first thing you see outside my office is a doormat that says: LEAVE…Inside, my so-called work space looks like it got tossed by burglars. (page 26)

John Irving’s description on page 31 sounds to be the most efficient and comfortable with two tables, a computer in a far corner, a couch, and a chocolate Lab for company.

Sylvia Nasar’s office is very neat and colorful also with a Lab for company—see page 50.

And PJ O’Rourke’s is a mess—see page 102.

 

Some of the other writers included in this book are: David Sedaris, Neil Gaimen, Mary Higgins Clark, Colin Powell, Junot Diaz, John Grisham, Dave Barry, Katherine Boo, James McBride, Jhumpa Lahiri, Donna Tartt, Ann Patchett, Michael Connelly, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Chang-rae Lee, and dozens more.

While all of the answers to the following question were enlightening, this one made me laugh aloud:

If you could meet any character from literature, who would it be?

Isabel Allende: Zorro, of course. If possible, at night and in bed, with the mask but not the whip.

      

          Good to know--as are all the revelations and recommendations in By the Book.