January 2010

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Some Literary Links that Started Me Thinking

January 10, 2010 in award, bookstore, translation by Kim | No comments

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Happy Birthday University Book Store!

January 8, 2010 in bookstore, essay by Kim | 2 comments

University Book Store in Seattle, WA (the most literary city in the nation, just ask anyone from Seattle) is celebrating its 110th birthday on Sunday, that’s 110 on 1/10/10.  In honor of this numerically significant birthday, the store asked 110 authors to each write a 110 word essay.  The results are published in 110/110. Buy a book by one of the 110 contributors during 2010 and you’ll receive a free copy of 110/110. Several selections are accessible through the website, but Lensey Namioka’s contribution resonated with me:

“Why do I spend so much time in the University Bookstore?  Let
me count the ways:
pawing through the box of books on sale;
reading the titles of books recommended by the staff;
visiting the children’s department and seeing kids listening to their
mother reading something aloud;
flipping through books in the humor section and giggling, until I see
someone staring at me;
browsing in the travel section and dreaming about visiting some of the places mentioned;
looking for a birthday card for a friend, trying to find one that
doesn’t tell her she’s an antique;
needing a break, and going to the café to eat a cranberry-apple scone.”

Lensey pretty much sums up my favorite bookstore experiences.

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A New Year’s Literary, uh, Culinary Resolution

January 6, 2010 in Challenge, cookbook, Uncategorized by Claire | 6 comments

This is a tale of two books, neither of which I’ve read.

But let me first start with Kim who last year made a true literary resolution to elevate her daily conversations about books and reading, thus encouraging others to read and to talk about what they’ve read.   Kim also challenged herself as a reader in a variety of awe-inspiring ways: I invite you to enter the word “challenge” into our search engine and discover the various goals she set for herself–and kept, from reading more essays to searching out books about art history.  This year, it was my turn to think about a New Year’s resolution.

But there’s a problem: I’m terrified of goals because I have a bad habit of not keeping them.  You may have noticed I didn’t join any of Kim’s challenges.  It wasn’t because she didn’t invite me.

So I didn’t wake up all hungover and bloated on New Year’s Day and start making lists of how “this year is going to be different.”  I’m too old to believe that January 1 is anything special.  I’ve seen too many come and go and can’t help noticing that the woman who wakes up on on the first day of the new year is the same one who went to sleep the night before.  She’s just a day older.

And yet there’s this: I’m going to be a vegetarian in 2010. Read the rest of this entry »

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The Strand – New York City

January 4, 2010 in bookstore by Kim | 4 comments

A few weeks ago, Keith and I had dinner with our friends Mark and Liz Koussa.  They had just returned from a trip to New York.  Mark mentioned visiting a couple of bookstores and the conversation switched to bookstore tourism and buying books.  Keith is used to these long tangents, he just continued eating, Liz looked a little horrified at the thought of visiting anywhere with both Mark and I.  She feared she would never get out of a bookstore, my family could tell her she is right to be afraid.  I asked Mark to write about his New York trip and here is his first installment:

After a long day of shopping through SoHo…well, watching my wife shop through SoHo…I expected to cash in my “good husband” tokens and declare myself done  for the year.  Instead, after treading miles up Broadway Avenue, I flipped the script and asked for another 18 miles of purchasing?  No, I wasn’t angling for that new HDTV I have had my eye on.  I saw the Strand.  

At the corner of 12th and Broadway, this 55,000 square foot bookstore is a bookworm’s amusement park.  Opened in 1927, the Strand was originally located on Fourth Avenue, in New York’s legendary Book Row.  In 1956, this family bookstore was moved to its current location on Broadway, where the Bass family rented 4,000 square feet.  Although the Guinness Book of World Records lists New York’s Barnes and Noble flagship store as the largest bookstore in the world, the Strand is widely considered the largest based on shelf space.  
Prior to even crossing the threshold of this behemoth’s modest, classic exterior, the Strand’s claim to fame quickly makes itself apparent.  Wrapped Read the rest of this entry »
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What I Learned in 2009

January 2, 2010 in essay, literary 2009, poetry, short story by Kim | 4 comments

I know, everyone is already focused on 2010, but my ship turned a little slowly this year.  Thinking about my New Year’s resolutions, I kept mulling over 2009.  Rather than looking forward, I continually looked back, as if I was searching for something I missed.

In an effort to put 2009 to bed, I thought I’d hash out my literary thoughts and discoveries for 2009:

Throughout the year, I made a concentrated effort to read more essays, short stories and poems.  I discovered as much about myself reading them as I did from the content of the piece.  The experience confirmed what I suspected in 2008, I’m an essay groupie.  My favorite essays are those that notice something mundane and then spin thoughts out into a beautifully connected web.  My own thinking will notice something ordinary and then spin out, but more like a tangled ball of yarn.  George Orwell, Anne Fadimen and E.B. White stood out.  Nick Hornby’s ”Believer” essays are cozy and warm, I can’t wait to read the rest of them.  I enjoyed the Essay Reading Challenge and joined again for this year (check out the Essay Challenge page to see what I’m reading.)

How I read a short story significantly effects my reaction to it.  My goal was to read a short story a day for the second third of the year.  I failed, but I am 53 stories into 100 Shots of Short.  As I look back at the list of what I read, the ones that were not part of a collection by the same author were far more meaningful to me.  I have a terrible tendency to novelize a collection of short stories.  My favorites were by the O’Connor’s:  Frank’s “First Confession,” and Flannery’s “Everything that Rises Must Converge.”  Some labeled 2009 the Year of the Short Story, and while that wouldn’t describe my experience, it certainly was a year that I delved deeper into the genre.

My enjoyment of poetry continues to grow.  I’m constantly on the look out for Ted Kooser and Mary Oliver collections.  I’ll always like hearing poetry over reading it.  My inner voice never is never as insightful as that of an excellent reader.  Guess which podcast I listen to most?  That’s right, Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac. 

Far and away, my favorite book of the year was The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery.  This work is wonderful on its own, but great books are more than their content.  The Elegance of the Hedgehog opened the door to translated literature for me.  We spent the summer on the blog reviewing translated books, some terrific, some okay, but overall the best reading experience of the year.  I’m far more aware of and interested in books from other languages and cultures than at the beginning of the 2009.  

Looking for translated books led to learning about new publishers.  It never occurred to me that I would feel loyal to a publisher, but that is 2008 thinking.  All I have to do is see Eurpoa’s funny bird and the book is with me at the cash register.  NYRB’s e-mails are the first I open.  The best literary day of the month is when Archipelago Books’ shipment arrives.

So what are my 2010 resolutions?  I’m considering naming some I would actually achieve, like taking more naps.

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