“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.

Eighteen years ago I visited Seattle for the first time.  It was our first weekend trip away from a job I hated and a city I swore I would never live in (now I realize I’ll live in Los Angeles for the rest of my life, but I did get rid of that job).  The angst I felt over all the changes in my life lifted the moment I walked into The Elliott Bay Book Company.  I found a book during that first visit about living in suburbia; the recommendation card described the tedium of living in tract housing as the constant evenly paced whoosh of a Rainbird sprinkler.  The description struck me, so I bought the book.  It detailed the brain-numbing monotony of suburban life.  Whenever I drive through tract housing I feel that oppression.

Interestingly enough, during my recent trip to Elliot Bay, I bought two more books about home life (really, they have over 150,000 titles, the breadth and depth of the store is amazing, I just seem to have a theme whenever I go there).  When I walked into the store I was a bit overwhelmed by all of the choices.  In front of me as soon as I entered where four 9 foot or taller bookshelves full of staff recommendations.  I wanted all of them.  More recommendations were spread among the various subjects.  An entire bookshelf is dedicated to recommendations for books groups (plus book groups can meet with a staff member to discuss recommendations for their group and tips on how to keep the conversation on topic).  I gave up trying to make a decision and asked the woman at the information desk if there was a unique book she liked.  She had two that she talked about as we walked over to the books (I learned later that employees are trained to walk the customer over to the book they’re asking about chatting with them the entire way, I loved it).  The first was Cost by Roxana Robinson, a story of what all of us give up for family.  I haven’t read it yet, but I’m looking forward to it.  Hmm, is this the appropriate book to be reading around the Christmas tree surrounded by family?  Maybe not. 

Book Review

The second book was The Story of Marriage by Andrew Sean Greer, she said the book did a wonderful job showing that spouses never really know each other.  But the author is young, in his thirties, what, has he been married 15 minutes?  Well, I read this book and the young author has some interesting insights on assumptions in marriage and the problems resulting from a lack of communication.   The basic storyline is how Pearlie’s view of her husband from their childhood and their marriage changes when a person from his war years returns and alters their lives.  What drove me nuts is that Pearlie and Holland, the husband, never discuss the issue, they communicate about this vital topic only through this ghost from his past.  For me, the book becomes a bit of a stretch, but I discuss everything with my husband, he actually might like a little bit of Pearlie in his life.  Pearlie wonders about marriage and the role of a wife through the sentencing of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.  Why didn’t Ethel turn on her husband to be with her kids?  To whom does she have the greatest loyalty?  The question of loyalty comes up in the Rosenberg’s marriage, Pealier and Holland’s marriage and the actions of the boys who did not fight in WWII, either as a result of conscientious objection or fear. Interwoven in the story is a picture of life for a black family at the end of the Korean War and a peek into the culture of a nation awakening to its promise after WWII.

The List of Qualities

Elliott Bay has an amazing amount of features that support its nationwide fame, here’s a bullet point list of what is wonderful:

• A coffee shop serving organic food and coffee that inhabits the entire basement.  Rumor has it that the coffee shop in “Frazier” is based on this one.
• Book clubs every Tuesday night at 6:30:  The Elliot Bay Book Club discussing contemporary fiction on the first Tuesday; The Global Issues and Ethics Book Club discussing modern problems and maybe even solutions on the second Tuesday; Speculation, the SciFi and Fantasy group on the third Tuesday; and, Stages, for readers of new and classic dramas on the fourth Tuesday.  The books for each group on the website, a handy recommendation guide if you love the genre but don’t live close enough to attend.
• Maiden Voyage First Edition Program – the store sends out a hardback first edition of an author’s debut novel.  One past choice was The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize.  Membership is $150 a year.  Hmm, another holiday or birthday gift that would keep on giving all year long.
• Elliott Bay gives back to the Seattle community with Books for Change.  A percentage of sales from chosen books are donated to charity.  When I was there the choice of books related to the organization for that month, but also included several fiction and non-fiction bestsellers such as Master Pip by Lloyd Jones.
• The staff will assist with corporate sales, either arranging for the appropriate book for an entire office or client list or a variety of hand picked books for a particular business.
• Almost nightly author visits from the entire range of authors from the stature of Frank Rich and John Irving to the new unknown author who could be tomorrow’s Phillip Roth.  In fact, right now the opening page for the website is a recollection of the Obama’s visit when he toured the nation for The Audacity of Hope.
• Staged Play Readings occur from May to October (the less rainy months?), each month is a staged reading of a play.
• Last but certainly not least, each quarter Elliot Bay publishes Elliot Bay Booknotes a summary of recommended books of various genres.  Bookmark this page and remember to return to it on each Equinox and Solstice.

A Closing Gift

The entire time I was reading The Story of Marriage, I kept thinking of a poem I heard Mary Oliver read last winter.  I was in Royce Hall with hundreds of other people and you could have heard a pin drop, we all sat mesmerized by the poetry of this tiny woman.  After almost 20 years of marriage, I think this one is the most beautiful love poems:

The Whistler

All of a sudden she began to whistle. By all of a sudden

I mean that for more than thirty years she had not

whistled. It was thrilling. At first I wondered, who was

in the house, what stranger? I was upstairs reading, and

she was downstairs. As from the throat of a wild and

cheerful bird, not caught but visiting, the sounds war-

bled and slid and doubled back and larked and soared.

Finally I said, Is that you? Is that you whistling? Yes, she

said. I used to whistle, a long time ago. Now I see I can

still whistle. And cadence after cadence she strolled

through the house, whistling.

I know her so well, I think. I thought. Elbow and an-

kle. Mood and desire. Anguish and frolic. Anger too.

And the devotions. And for all that, do we even begin

to know each other? Who is this I’ve been living with

for thirty years?

This clear, dark, lovely whistler?

Thank you, Mary Oliver.

Elliott Bay Book Company
101 South Main Street
Seattle, WA 98104
T: 206.624.6600

I’ve found that used bookstores fall into three broad categories:  those that sell mass paperbacks, those that resemble a bookstore with new books but the stock is used, and those that carry fine or collectible books (calling them a used bookstore is a bit like calling an antique store a used furniture store).  One of the attractions is the discounted price for everyone, but also the potential trade polices.  Many bookstores give credit for donated books that can be used to purchase other used books.  Some stores pay for used books, but those tend to be for collectible or rare books.  As I’ve wandered through the used bookstores, I’ve noticed that the owners are extremely knowledgeable about books, their stock, and what they see coming through.  They all knew the American Guide Series and gave me advice on how to collect them (avoid reprints), although none of them had any at the time.  I found these fun stores recently:

Newberry Books in Seattle, Washington is located in a basement store off Pioneer Square and is a finer used bookstore specializing in history, art and Asian studies.  The store just moved to this location, which is shoebox size, but lined with ceiling high bookshelves.  I had an interesting conversation with the owner about Amazon.  He receives a significant portion of his income selling via Amazon’s used book function.  In fact, I heard this over and over again as I talked to various owners, that used bookstores are surviving in part because of Amazon and selling through their site.  In the early years, when Amazon started in Seattle, Amazon was Newberry’s largest client because the buyer would call looking for books on a regular basis.  Now that Amazon has moved, the connection is lost and Newberry sells on the site like other used booksellers.

Newberry’s business is largely Internet based.  Book agents and collectors used to visit used bookstore, but the Internet has changed the emphasis of collecting from the search to the acquisition.  Now book collectors (or any other collectors) do not need to travel from place to place searching for their obsession, they merely type in a search request on the Internet.  Call me old fashioned, but for me collecting is about the joy of finding something I’ve looked for, not typed for.

Columbia Booksellers and Stationers in Columbia, California is a small ‘Mom and Pop’ store in the Columbia State Historic Park.  My son, Kyle, and I were so attracted to it we went back three times throughout the day.  It is full of fun stuff, both historic and reproduction.  There are new books that special in history, especially California, the gold rush and the west and old used books covering the same topics.  The store sells stationery and school items (reproductions) from the 19th century, we had fun looking at the schoolbooks and slates.  Kyle found a complete set of The American Guide, not to be confused with the American Guide Series, a five volume set of books that describe regions of the United States published in 1949.  He convinced me to get it when he said we could look at it before we traveled to see how places have changed; sometimes he is very much my son.  I read the portion on Los Angeles:  “Los Angeles, like many American cities, suffers from traffic congestion which is considerably enhanced by [the] fact that there are no subways or other rapid transit facilities.  It is [a] city of magnificent distances in which one must have an auto to get around easily.”  Unfortunately, some things never change.

Items found in books over the years, what a hoot!

Capitol Hill Books in Denver, Colorado (you were thinking DC) is similar to an independent bookstore, but with used books.  The selection is diverse with an emphasis on international topics and authors.  In fact, Capitol Hill has the largest foreign language section I’ve seen so far in a used bookstore.  I noticed numerous Tom Robbins books and wondered if they had just received a large box from one source.  Not so, he’s just been a popular author and circulates through fairly regularly.  I’ve never read him, so I bought Still Life with Woodpecker which was described as “campy” and very much his style.  The blurb on the back describes the book as a “sort of love story that takes place inside of a pack of Camel cigarettes.”  Hard to come up with a preconceived idea with that description.

Capitol Hill Books provides “bibliotherapy” a service to help the reader find the perfect good read (they were wonderful with me), or research a particular subject, or find the perfect book for the hard-to-please person, all with Denver’s largest database of used books.  They also pride themselves on being part of the community, welcoming everyone to the store and donating books to dozens of local charities.  Capitol Hill creates the atmosphere of a new independent bookstore, but the used bookstore prices.

Village Book Exchange in San Clemente, California is largely comprised of mass paperbacks, but has a variety of other smaller sections also.  I enjoyed looking through the old cookbooks and the biblography section.  I was camping in the area and the campground map included an advertisement for Village Book Exchange.  Even though I arrived without showering all weekend and hair like straw, the clerk was lovely.  Most importantly, the bookstore is for sale, so if you’re looking for a life change and want to live in a sleepy California beach town, contact the owner.  She’s selling because her son lives in Portland and she is going to move there to join him.  In addition to used books, Village Book Exchange supplies the middle and high school kids with their required reading (some lucky English class must be reading Twelth Night, there is a shelf of them) and they provide one shelf of new books (any can be ordered) and on this particular weekend, a stack of Brisingr by Christopher Paolini, so my kids were thrilled.

Newberry Books

214 First Avenue, South B10

Seattle, WA 98104

T:  206.518.5806

Columbia Booksellers and Stationers

Columbia State Historic Park, Franklin/Wolfe Building

22725 Main Street

Columbia, CA 95310-9401

Capitol Hill Books

300 E. Colfax

Denver, CO 80203

T:  303.837.0700

Village Book Exchange

99 Avenida Serra

San Clemente, CA

T:  949.492.1114

The Globe Bookstore is small, a standard store front with a little more depth, but bookcases climbing up all of the walls and open space filled with free-standing racks and shelves.  I headed to the recommendation shelf and John made it clear that the only book he personally recommended was the “Grand Prix d’Escargot,”  all the other books were suggested by customers and he hadn’t read them.  I thought for a moment, I know a lot of book prizes, but not all of them.  My memory isn’t what it used to be, but I was confident that if I had ever heard of the Snail’s Grand Prize, I would have remembered it.  So I asked, what is it? 

The Grand Prix d’Escargot is awarded by the owners of The Globe Bookstore, John and his wife Carolyn, for the best book that was out of print and recently re-released.  They choose the book that they’ve had to search high and low for and that they’re relieved a publisher has re-printed it.  The current winner was The Thief and the Dogsby Naguib Mahfouz.

Initially published in 1961, The Thief and the Dogs is the first stream of consciousness novel in Arabic.  It’s the story of a Marxist thief who feels betrayed when he is released from jail and his subsequent revenge plots.  Mr. Mahfouz is best known for the Cairo Trilogy (simply called ‘the Trilogy’ in Egypt); Palace Walk, Palace of Desire and Sugar Street. John described Palace Walk as brilliant and the other two as excellent.  I was too embarrassed to admit that the Palace Walk has been sitting unread on my bookshelf for years; however, it has survived numerous clean sweep donations to the library, so I’m still planning on reading it.

Naguib Mahfouz won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1988.  John explained that prior to that time the American University in Cairo Press translated some of Mr. Mahfouz’s works in English and printed them in relatively small numbers.  After winning the Nobel, a “large publishing house” bought up the AUC stock and then translated the books and printed vast quantities.  It’s hard to verify the story from the AUC website, but in any event, I’m thankful the books are widely available in English.

I shared with John the re-publishing story I knew about Jincy Willett.  He immediately searched for the book on his computer to order it.  As I wandered around the store, I watched John interact with every customer who walked through the door.  Some were tourists like me and he helped them find what they were looking for, others were regulars who grabbed the rocking chair when it was free to shoot the breeze.  When one regular entered, John led him to the rocking chair then searched behind the calendar for a newspaper article he had cut out and saved just for him.  They were eagerly reading it and discussing it when I left to join the street music outside.

The Globe Bookstore

218 1st Avenue, South

Grand Central Building

Seattle, WA 98104

Tel:  206.682.6882

When I walked into Wessel and Lieberman Booksellers Inc. it felt like an English library (except for the bongo street musician outside).  The store is elegant and quiet (discounting for the crowds of fans walking to the Seahawks game), it even has an employee sitting behind a large wood desk in the front of the store.  It was such a sophisticated atmosphere, I was surprised to discovered it was a used bookstore.  This isn’t your paperback romance novel used store, it is truly a treasure trove. 

What caught my eye was a line of books on top of a bookshelf, each title a different state.  I love to travel and one of my many traveling goals is to visit each state (along with each Great Lake, each mission on the California Mission Trail, each baseball stadium, etc), so I was intrigued.  They were a collection of the American Guide Series, a  WPA project during the depression that employed writers to write a book about each state; it’s history, culture, landmarks, potential driving tours.  The project was expanded to include major cities and landmarks.  I fell in love with them, both with the books and the fun of hunting for a collection that was large enough to last my lifetime.  We picked up the Death Valley book and I mentioned to my husband and kids, several times, that I would love these for Christmas presents.

Wessel and Lieberman has an extensive selection of poetry books and art books.  I looked through the poetry section for any Ted Kooser selections (he’s my favorite poet) and my husband went on the prowl for Edward S. Curtis art books.  I came up empty, but we hit a Curtis jackpot.

Our good friend, Bruce Kapson, is an art dealer specializing in Edward S. Curtis works (more on Bruce in an upcoming post) so over the years we’ve seen some beautiful Curtis works, but not at used bookstore prices.  At Wessel and Lieberman we found a two foot by three foot art book of portraits, Edward S. Curtis:  Portraits from North American Indian Life.  Curtis is frequently criticized because of the anthropological roots of his work (he would dress up an Indian from one tribe in the native wear of another tribe), but his work wasn’t for academic purposes, it was artistic and the portraits are stunning.  While I loved the book, and the price, figuring out how to get it on the plane home defeated me.  I shouldn’t have worried, Wesseland Lieberman have the best shipping prices I’ve encountered in years.  In fact, if you order from their website, they ship for free, way to compete with Amazon!

As I wandered around the back room, one side fiction, the other non-fiction, I tripped across the perfect book for me, Brady & Lawless’ Favorite Bookstores by Frank Brady and Joann Lawless published in 1978.  Mr. Brady and Ms. Lawless traveled around the country visiting bookstores and wrote a book reviewing their favorites.  I cheered along with every sentence in the preface, most of which I’m sure I’ll quote at one time or another on this blog.  Today’s favorite:  “Bookstores are an important part of our literary culture.  They have also served, since the Renaissance, as social and historical centers–quiet marketplaces for ideas.”

Of the bookstores we’ve reviewed so far, only Kramer Books & Afterwords Cafe shows up, the book describes how the owner, William Kramer, liked the tascas in Spain where people leisurely gathered, chatted and snacked before heading to dinner.  He created a similar atmosphere in DC which the community enjoys to this day.  Interestingly, the authors reviewed of Barnes and Noble in New York City as a single entity store on 5th Avenue (my son bought the latest Harry Potter there several years ago) with an annex at Rockerfeller Square and a new store in Boston.  My, things have changed.

Wessel and Liberman Booksellers Inc.
208 First Avenue South
Seattle, WA 98104
Tel:  888.383.3631
Fax:  206.682.2391