Yoga for People Who Can’t Be Bothered to Do It by Geoff Dyer: I brought this travel/memoir at Brooklyn Flea, because I’m currently reading & am obsessed with Dyer’s collection of essays, Working the Room. I want to read everything Geoff Dyer’s ever written. Also, the title is pretty amazing.

You Deserve Nothing by Alexander Maksik: This was an impulse purchase at Strand, I had never heard of it before I saw it in their basement bins of new paperbacks. Three factors: a 50% off price tag, intriguing jacket copy, and the fact that I’ve never been steered wrong by a Europe Edition combined forces and this one had to come home with me.

Wendy and the Lost Boys by Julie Salamon: This is a pretty fantastic book cover, yes? But of course we would never buy a book just because it has a pretty cover, would we? We’d also flip through it and think that the subject matter looks fascinating and that we’d enjoy reading it. This was one of those times where instead of putting it back down and pondering it for a few more days/weeks/months/until paperback release, I just went for it and purchased it.

Paris: The Collected Traveler, An Inspired Companion Guide, edited by Barrie Kerper: This is one in a newish series of books (all under “The Collected Traveler” title) that looks fantastic. It’s a non-traditional guidebook that combines in-depth articles and history with essays and interviews with many writers & experts of the city. There’s a little seed recently planted in my head that’s telling me to go to Paris next year for my vacation, and I’m indulging it with books while I ponder the potential trip.

Walk the Blue Fields by Claire Keegan: I read this article on NPR, and then I absolutely needed this book. I miss Ireland very much, and reading literature about the beautiful countryside, quaint towns, and rich culture helps make up for the fact that I’m not still driving through the green hills in the little red rental car with Emma, stopping frequently to stare at the view in amazement.

The first is Round Ireland with a Fridge by Tony Hawks (not to be confused with Tony Hawk). This is next up on my list of travel memoirs about Ireland. In my experience, humorous travel memoirs are always best. On the back of the book, Tony Hawks was likened to Bill Bryson and Dave Barry, two people who take funny very seriously, so that’s promising. It was recommended to me by one of my Mom’s friends, who read it before she went to Ireland.

The second is Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis. I’m not sure how I was never really aware of Auntie Mame, because it was published in 1955 and has pretty much been extremely well loved by many since then. It was also a play, a Broadway musical, and a movie with Rosalind Russell. Shameful, really, that I was so in the dark about Auntie Mame. But anyway, I could tell by the cover, the title, and the fact that my friend Jon-With-Wonderful-Taste is reading it makes me confident that this will be a book that I adore. It’s also a bit Wodehouse-esque, which can only be a spectacular thing.

The third book is Beatrice and Virgil, Yann Martel’s new book. I was able to score a review copy at Strand yesterday, and I’m so excited to read it. I called my friend Laura yesterday to tell her that I just saw online that Strand has review copies in, and did she want me to pick her up a copy too? Her reply pretty much sums up how I feel too: “I just got goosebumps!”

So many great things to read, so little time!

Author Joe Hill came up with a very fun contest to help encourage shopping at independent bookstores:

Okay, been thinking about this whole March-is-love-your-Indie-Bookstore month, and I realized trying to guilt people into going shopping with their local guy sucks. We don’t need guilt here; we need a contest.“

Basically all you have to do is buy a book at any independent bookstore during the month of March. If you already have, you can submit purchases back to March 1. You email him a scan or photo of the receipt and your mailing address for your prize, and you’re entered!

The prizes? 12 people will receive a limited or special edition book – the titles vary and you can see all the prizes here.

You can find more info about entering the contest here.

I’m emailing my entry now – I went to Strand on Tuesday and bought four fabulous books. :)

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One reason I love used bookstores is that they don’t have everything. It’s always fun to go in and see what you can find, what they have that day. It’s satisfying to come out with the only copy there of a book by one of your favorite authors, that you got for 1/3 of the original price.

While browsing the fiction, I noticed they had a lot of old modern library editions of many classic authors – everything from Faulkner to Austen to Voltaire. When I took them down to look at them closer, I saw that they all had a bookplate inside, and had all belonged to someone named “Allen V. Miller.” “Allen Miller” in some books, others used the middle initial. Some were handwritten, some were typed. Some had his entire Brooklyn address included. He had several different bookplates, one version was actually the Bookworm print that I just bought myself.

Well, I don’t know exactly why Allen V. Miller’s books were sold to Skyline Books. My guess is that he died, or maybe had to be taken to a nursing home and his family had to condense his belongings. Or maybe he’s still alive and well and just needed money (wouldn’t be shocking in this economy). Or any number of other reasons – he may have just gotten sick of them and not wanted them anymore.

However, I sort of doubt that he didn’t want his books anymore. He had a wonderful collection, and they were in good condition but were obviously read and loved. And he put bookplates in them! Super cute.

Regardless of the reason why his books were there, it made me both happy and sad. Happy that Allen Miller existed, and that he loved books. Happy that he put bookplates in them. Happy that I could be standing there looking at them. Happy they’ll get passed along to other readers who will enjoy them. Sad that they were no long with him, for whatever reason. I am a giant nerd.

I was incapable of leaving without one of his books. It took me a while to decide which one I wanted, but I finally decided on The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. It didn’t have my favorite bookplate in it (the Bookworm one was in an F. Scott Fitzgerald book, and I already owned that exact edition), but that’s ok. It actually had the silliest bookplate – a cute little nature scene with raccoons. I love it though, and I was really happy I could own a part of his collection. At least one book from his collection now has a new home.

The Picture of Dorian Gray

From the Books of Allen Miller

Here’s to you, Allen Miller.

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Reborn: Journals and Notebooks, 1947-1963

Susan Sontag

Today on the way home from work I bought Reborn: Journals and Notebooks, 1947 – 1963 by Susan Sontag.

I’ve had my eye on this since last month, after reading about it in a magazine.

I’ve never read any of her other work, so it probably seems odd that I’m so interested in her journals. I love collections of letters journals, or notebooks of authors though. Just flipping through this book I’ve seen many wonderful short snips of writing.

I’m looking forward to reading more.

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State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America

Matt Weiland

I was browsing the new book section in Borders during lunch this week, and I found a book called State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America.

The idea behind the book is that the editors, Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey, asked 50 writers to write about one of America’s 50 states. There’s a good variety of authors, including some of my favorites: Dave Eggers, John Hodgman, Sarah Vowell, Jhumpa Lahiri, Ann Patchett, and Alison Bechdel.

I read the Michigan essay, by Mohammed Naseehu Ali, while standing in Borders, and I really enjoyed it. It made me want to own the book so that I’d be able to open to any state at random and experience a little bit of Armchair Traveling.

The book was full price ($29.95) at Borders, so I didn’t buy it right away. I couldn’t resist it long though, I went to Barnes and Noble yesterday and got it, where it’s 20%, off plus my member discount. It’s also 34% off on Amazon.

According to the user reviews I read on Amazon, some of the state’s essays are dissapointing. That doesn’t really surprise me, with a collection of 50 essays some are bound to not be as wonderful.

If you want to see a full list of which author wrote about which state, it’s posted on the Amazon page for the book, if you scroll down a bit.

It’s also a beautiful book, with a fun map of the US on the end papers, and a section of full color glossy pictures pages in the middle. I’m considering getting more copies for christmas presents for my travel/book-loving friends and family.

Here’s the preview from Publisher’s Weekly:
Starred Review. Without leaving home or spending a cent on gas, readers of this book can enjoy a scenic view of the entire U.S. that is as familiar as it is disorienting. Weiland, deputy editor of the Paris Review, and Wilsey, editor-at-large for McSweeney’s, have gathered a group of 50 disparate voices to explore not just their experience in America, but the way each state was presented in the American Guide series of the Federal Writers Project in the 1930s, in which the Works Project Administration (WPA), as part of F.D.R’s New Deal, put more than 6000 American writers to work creating a portrait of this country. The editors wanted to make a book inspired by the ideals behind the WPA Guides but they also wanted something more personal, more eccentric, and more partial. Obvious heavy-hitters—Dave Eggars (Illinois), Rick Moody (Connecticut), Jhumpa Lahiri (Rhode Island), Barry Hannah (Mississippi), William T. Vollmann (California)—are included, as well as some wonderful surprises. Alison Bechdel’s illustrated story about her life after moving to Vermont brilliantly combines personal history with historical fact, as does Charles Bock’s essay on growing up and working in his parent’s Las Vegas pawnshop. Mohammed Naseehu Ali’s tale of life in Michigan, after moving there from Ghana as a teen, illuminates what the unconditionally generous Michigan nature shares with the traditions of his own Hausa-Islamic culture. And Franzen’s imaginary interview with the state of New York is perhaps the high point among this collection of beguiling summations of something all the writers share: a love-hate relationship with how their chosen state has changed and evolved during the course of their lives.

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Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist

Rachel Cohn

Has anyone read Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist?

I’m very excited to see the movie, so I picked up the book in Border’s today.

It’s supposed to be good, but the only thing I really noticed while flipping through it in the store was how many times the F word appeared. It was a bit startling, especially for a teen book.

Books with two authors are always a little unusual, but in this case it seems like it makes sense – it switches perspectives throughout the book and Rachel wrote Norah’s point of view and David wrote Nick’s.

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1. There’s an author event coming up that I plan to attend, and I’ll buy a nice hardcover copy to replace my paperback copy.

2. The author is one of my favorites, and I’ve found a really cool other edition of one of their works. This happens most frequently with Kurt Vonnegut books – I own a lot of new Dial paperbacks that all have similar covers with the V. Strand often has very old (not first editions or first printings, but old nonetheless), very cool hardcover copies that came out within a few years of the original edition. They sell them for $7.50, and I’m always thrilled when I find one I don’t have. In fact, they are holding just such a copy of Breakfast of Champions for me, which I’m going to try to pick up tomorrow.

3. I’ve found a very cheap copy (usually 50 cents or 1 dollar) of a book I absolutely love. I usually find these at Friends of the Library book sales. Often, I give these copies to my good friends – happy to find a cheap copy of one of my favorite books to share with others. However, since I give them away, it doesn’t really count as buying a copy of a book I already own, since I wouldn’t count new books that I bought as gifts. The occasions where it does count though, is when I buy a copy under the same circumstances, but plan on keeping it as a “lending copy.” I don’t like to lend books generally, which is horrid but true. Especially nice copies or my favorite books. I’ve found out too many times the hard way that many other people don’t have high standards of taking care of other people’s books. I’ve gotten copies back that I lent out like new, and they’ve come back months later with dozens of dog-eared pages, bent covers, and blackend edges. But I still like to share books with friends, so if I see a super cheap copy of a great book, I’ll buy it and lend it. I just did that with The History of Love by Nicole Krause. I have lots of friends at work who read, and I’ve been passing the book around from person to person.

So now I’ve willingly admitted that I’m completely obsessed with books and book collecting, not just reading. (Though if you’ve read my blog for any length of time, you probably already know that.) My love of reading is the force behind my love of book collecting, but I am aware that it’s still a huge fixation.

If I buy another copy of a book for any of the reasons listed above, I don’t list them in my monthly Polysyllabic Spree posts. This is because the intent of my Polysyllabic Spree is to track the flow of books acquired (books to read) verses books I’ve read. Buying another copy of something I already own does not affect this, so I omit them. I also don’t list children’s picture books, mainly because they can be read in about 5 minutes, and I don’t want to falsely inflate my book read list.

Anyway, the reason behind all this back story, is that I want to start posting pictures of some of the cool old editions I find. When I was visiting in Boston a few weeks ago, I went to a great used book store in Concord called Books With A Past. I found two wonderful old copies of J. D. Salinger books.

The first is a Modern Library edition of Nine Stories. It was $10.

Nine Stories

The second was a very old, beat up paperback of The Catcher in the Rye. It seems very appropriate to have an ancient copy that was used in a high school, well worn from many adolescent reads. Despite how beat up the cover is and the markings, the book is in pretty good condition. It’s not falling apart at the seams, and the text is clean and has no writing or underlining. It looks like it’s the 25th printing of the Bantam paperback, printed in August 1969. It was only $1.50.

Catcher in the Rye

Catcher in the Rye

Catcher in the Rye

Catcher in the Rye

I will post some picture of Breakfast of Champions after I get it, and maybe I’ll occasionally post pictures of some of the other old Vonneguts I’ve collected.

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Twilight (The Twilight Saga, Book 1)

Stephenie Meyer

When something gets a lot of hype, I tend to get a little resistant to it unless I’m already “a part of it” – so to speak. I got into Harry Potter just a smidge before the maddness, so I was able to unabashedly join the mayham. I still have not, however, seen Titanic.

The main reason I have not read the Twilight series though, despite the fact that I love YA Lit, is that I am uninterested and indifferent to vampires, and for a long time the Twilight books were just vampire books to me. It was easy to keep up this mindset since I have a lot of other books and media to consume and distract me from anything I’m not interested in.

However, the hype for the fourth and final book, Breaking Dawn, that was released Saturday made me miss the Harry Potter release parties and the fun and anticipation surrounding the release of a long awaited next installment. Plus, I began to admit that there must be more to the Twilight books than just vampires, since so many of my trusted reading buddies on RBC have read and loved the series.

I picked up Twilight, the first book in the series, at a bookstore last week and read a few pages from the middle. It seemed like I would enjoy it. What completely sold me on trying out the series was that Amazon had the paperback on sale for only $6. It arrived today, and I intend to read it this month. I’ll post about it as soon as I finish it.

The only thing that’s a little discouraging is that I’ve seen a lot of very negative reviews of Breaking Dawn so far. If I do like Twilight, it will be a bummer to read the whole series and be unsatisfied with the final book. I have not yet heard the thoughts of RBCers that have finished the book though, and I’m very interested in hearing what they think. So if you are one of the RBCers I’m talking about, I hope you’ll leave me a comment when you’re done with Breaking Dawn and let me know if you liked it. Especially since I will probably be wary of the threads about it in the forum, since I won’t want to see spoilers. :)

…………

Today I got thinking about my resistance to “hype” because I read a blog post on a publishing company’s blog by a girl who is considering giving the Twilight saga a try. Like me, hype can turn her away from trying something. Despite deciding to possibly read Twilight, she said in the post that she still maintains a strict “no-harry-potter-4-life” policy. (The publishing company’s blog that I was reading obviously wasn’t Scholastic or Bloomsbury.) Reading that, my first thought was how narrow minded and ridiculous she sounded to me. How sad to deny something to yourself (even if you don’t realize you’re missing out) just because it’s popular. I felt bad for her, because I know what a special place Hogwarts and the entire HP world holds in my heart, and how I feel cozy and contented just by picking up any one of the seven books and reading. How sad to not even give it a chance, to just read the first book, only because it’s hyped. After reading that post, I made a concious decision to make more of an effort not to get discouraged by hype. I know it’s said often – but things that are wildly popular are wildly popular for a reason: many people love whatever it is, and chances are you might too.

Who knows, maybe I’ll even watch Titanic someday soon. :)

PS – I just read the blog post I referenced above, and I’m not actually sure it’s a girl writing it. So just thought I should put that disclaimer out there.

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A Natural History of the Senses

Diane Ackerman

2 comments

I went to the Hoboken Arts and Music festival today. It’s very fun and very crowded. We saw Micky Dolenz of the Monkees, and I got some excellent nachos.

I wasn’t planning on buying anything, but Symposia bookstore had a booth and all fiction was $3. I found four books, and one of them was The Natural History of the Senses by Diane Ackerman. I’ve heard wonderful things about this book. My Mom loves it and recommends it highly.

I know blurbs can overrate things, but this one made me decide to read the book immediately:

An aphrodisiac for the sense receptors. Read a chapter, then step outside and voila: The sky is a deeper blue, the birds sing a sweeter song. How could the world seem otherwise, after feasting on voluptuous prose like this?    -Chicago Tribune

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