tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37383472640162398792012-01-30T15:56:13.887-06:00On Books. The Word. What is Printed. Paper. Script. Verse. And more.micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.comBlogger1821100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-82260050223570107722012-01-09T16:02:00.002-06:002012-01-09T16:28:17.072-06:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Kids</span> <br />1. The House in the Night by Susan Marie Swanson<br />2. MN Hidden Alphabet by David LaRochelle<br />3. Press Here by Herve Tullet<br />4. I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen<br />5. Every Thing On It by Shel Silverstein<br />6. The Construction Alphabet by Jerry Pallotta<br />7. The Chronicles of Harris Burdick Edited by Chris Van Allsburg<br />8. Big Little Brother by Kevin Kling<br />9. Kiki's Hats by Warren Hanson<br />10. Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site by Sherri Rinker<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">YA</span><br />1. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins<br />2. Wildwood by Colin Meloy<br />3. Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick<br />4. Cabin Fever by Jeff Kinney<br />5. The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan<br />6. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins<br />7. The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak<br />8. The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick<br />9. The Inheritance by Christopher Paolini<br />10. When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Poetry</span><br />1. The Superior Life by Jean Larson<br />2. Invisible Strings by Jim Moore<br />3. What Work Is by Philip Levine<br />4. Yellowrocket by Todd Boss<br />5. Low Down and Coming On edited by James Lenfestey<br />6. Pretend the World by Kathryn Kysar<br />7. The Great Enigma by Tomas Transtromer<br />8. The Best of It by Kay Ryan<br />9. The Half-Finished Heaven by Tomas Transtromer <br />10. What the Living Do by Marie Howe<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Cookbooks</span><br />1. The Splendid Table How To Eat Weekends by Lynne Rosetto Kasper and Sally Swift<br />2. How To Cook Everything by Mark Bittman<br />3. Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois<br />4. Cooking Up the Good Life by Jenny Breen and Susan Thurston<br />5. Essential Pepin by Jacques Pepin<br />6. Trout Caviar by Brett Laidlaw<br />7. Rotis by Stephane Reynaud<br />8. Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook by Beth Hensperger<br />9. How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman<br />10. The Northern Heartland Kitchen by Beth Dooley<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Gift and Misc.</span><br />1. Go The Fuck to Sleep by Adam Mansbach<br />2. F in Exams by Richard Benson<br />3. Pocket Neighborhoods by Russ Chapin<br />4. Once There Were Castles by Larry Millett<br />5. Everything Is Its Own Reward by Paul Madonna<br />6. The Twin Cities Bike Map <br />7. All My Friends Are Dead by Avery Monsen<br />8. Atlas of Remote Islands by Judith Schalansky<br />9. The 50 Funniest American Writers edited by Andy Borowitz<br />10. Drink Me from Potter Style<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-8226005022357010772?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-8680182294181500752012-01-09T14:55:00.003-06:002012-01-09T16:01:05.711-06:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Paperback Fiction</span><br /><br />1. Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese<br />2. Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan<br />3. True Grit by Charles Portis<br />4. Vestments by John Reimringer <br />5. Mr. White's Confession by Robert Clark<br />6. The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachmann<br />7. The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters<br />8. Butcher's Crossing by John Williams<br />9. All the Living by C.E. Morgan<br />10. The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht<br />11. Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell<br />12. In Caddis Wood by Mary Rockcastle<br />13. The Room by Emma Donoghue<br />14. In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin<br />15. Wingshooters by Nina Revoyr<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Paperback Non-Fiction</span><br />1. Through No Fault Of My Own by Coco Irvine<br />2. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot<br />3. The Hare With Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal<br />4. A Whole New Mind by Daniel H. Pink<br />5. Cleopatra by Stacey Schiff<br />6. The Tiger by John Vaillant<br />7. The Grace of Silence by Michelle Norris<br />8. Sheepish by Catherine Friend<br />9. Just Kids by Patti Smith<br />10. The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson<br />11. Up in the Old Hotel by Joseph Mitchell<br />12. At Home by Bill Bryson<br />13. 1491 by Charles Mann<br />14. Wicked River by Lee Sandlin <br />15. The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-868018229418150075?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-84602162456763658702012-01-06T13:15:00.002-06:002012-01-06T15:55:31.181-06:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Hardcover Fiction</span><br />1. The Long-Shining Waters by Danielle Sosin<br />2. State of Wonder by Ann Patchett<br />3. Gryphon by Charles Baxter <br />4. Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes <br />5. The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach<br />6. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs<br />7. 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami<br />8. Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James<br />9. The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje<br />10. The Pale King by David Foster Wallace<br />11. Open City by Teju Cole<br />12. Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward<br />13. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern<br />14. The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides <br />15. Once Upon a River by Bonnie Jo Campbell<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Hardcover Non-Fiction</span><br /><br />1. The Social Animal by David Brooks<br />2. In The Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson<br />3. Twelve Owls by Betsy Bowen and Laura Erickson<br />4. Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson<br />5. Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand<br />6. The Greater Journey by David McCullough<br />7. Bossypants by Tina Fey<br />8. Rin Tin Tin by Susan Orlean<br />9. Destiny of the Republic by Candace Millard<br />10. Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman<br />11. 1493 by Charles Mann<br />12. Blood Bones and Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton<br />13. The Swerve by Stephen Greenblatt<br />14. Blue Nights by Joan Didion<br />15. Voyageur Skies by Don Brenneman and Mark Seeley<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-8460216245676365870?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-79845626197907209342012-01-04T12:55:00.003-06:002012-01-04T13:03:25.542-06:00Tomorrow I'll be posting our bestselling titles from 2011 as we're finishing off inventory and year-end miscellany today. However, on Monday the 2nd of 2012 we had a customer redeem a gift certificate that was issued on 12/19/1997. That's almost six years before we took over this store. And over fourteen years past the issue date.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-7984562619790720934?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-65920445051888842032011-12-06T11:47:00.005-06:002011-12-06T12:54:35.776-06:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Stephanie Anderson: WORD. Brooklyn, NY. 11222.</span><br /><br />Here are her self-imposed rules for the following list:I feel like I need to qualify this list with the rules I made for myself, which was the only way to get it under 50. For a book to be a favorite handsell, it must meet the following criteria:<br /><br />1. It is a book that a reader is unlikely to have bought on their own (this is a rule I broke on several occasions)<br />2. It is a book that has several odd yet appealing characteristics that make it a very good fit with a certain sort of person<br />3. It is a book which, if successfully handsold, leaves me with the feeling that I have done A Good Deed<br /><br />I also did not include any books published this year, as otherwise the list would be made up half of them and that seems somehow wrong. They need to age a bit, don't you think? Hi, I'm crazy. Also also, I tried to spread the love across as many sections of the store as I could, but of course fiction got the lion's share.<br /><br />1. 33 1/3: CELINE DION'S LET'S TALK ABOUT LOVE by Carl Wilson<br />2. ALEC: THE YEARS HAVE PANTS by Eddie Campbell<br />3. AN AMERICAN CHILDHOOD by Annie Dillard<br />4. APPETITES by Carolyn Knapp<br />5. THE BEST OF EVERYTHING by Rona Jaffe<br />6. BIG RABBIT'S BAD MOOD by Ramona Badescu, illustrated by Delphine Durand<br />7. BOMBARDIERS by Po Bronson<br />8. BORN TO RUN by Christopher McDougall<br />9. THE CITY & THE CITY by China Mieville<br />10. CLOWN GIRL by Monica Drake<br />11. THE CURSE OF THE APPROPRIATE MAN by Lynn Freed<br />12. THE DARK IS RISING by Susan Cooper<br />13. THE DAYS OF ABANDONMENT by Elena Ferrante<br />14. FATHERS AND SONS by Alexander Waugh<br />15. FLATLAND by Edwin Abbott<br />16. THE GONE-AWAY WORLD by Nick Harkaway<br />17. GETTING THINGS DONE by David Allen<br />18. GRACELING by Kristin Cashore<br />19. HOW TO COOK EVERYTHING by Mark Bittman<br />20. HOW TO BE A DOMESTIC GODDESS by Nigella Lawson<br />21. INFINITE JEST by David Foster Wallace<br />22. THE INTUITIONIST by Colson Whitehead<br />23. IT'S USEFUL TO HAVE A DUCK by Isol<br />24. K BLOWS TOP by Peter Carlson<br />25. KING DORK by Frank Portman<br />26. LAST NIGHT IN MONTREAL by Emily St. John Mandel<br />27. LAST SUMMER OF THE DEATH WARRIORS by Francisco X. Stork<br />28. LET US NOW PRAISE FAMOUS MEN by James Agee<br />29. LOOK AT ME by Jennifer Egan<br />30. MATTERHORN by Karl Marlantes<br />31. MONEY by Martin Amis<br />32. THE MYSTERIOUS BENEDICT SOCIETY by Trenton Lee Stewart<br />33. OUT by Natsuo Kirino<br />34. NINE RULES TO BREAK WHEN ROMANCING A RAKE by Sarah Maclean<br />35. NOBODY'S BABY BUT MINE by Susan Elizabeth Phillips<br />36. THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH by Norton Juster<br />37. PROMETHEA by Alan Moore<br />38. RAYMOND CARVER by Carol Sklenicka<br />39. RUMSPRINGA by Tom Shachtman<br />40. THE SELECTED STORIES OF DEBORAH EISENBERG by, well, Deborah Eisenberg<br />41. STONER by John Williams<br />42. TENDER MORSELS by Margo Lanagan<br />43. TRAITOR TO HIS CLASS by H. W. Brands<br />44. TWENTY FRAGMENTS OF A RAVENOUS YOUTH by Xiaolu Guo<br />45. VANITY FAIR by William Makepeace Thackeray<br />46. THE WESTING GAME by Ellen Raskin<br />47. WHAT IT TAKES by Richard Ben Cramer<br />48. WHEN YOU REACH ME by Rebecca Stead<br />49. WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD by Jincy Willett<br />50. WRITTEN LIVES by Javier Marias<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-6592044505188884203?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-87991716506439098142011-11-30T10:57:00.003-06:002011-11-30T12:12:47.449-06:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Tracy Wynne: Books Inc, Alameda. Alameda, CA 94501.</span><br />Secret Garden-Frances Hodgson Burnett<br />I, Claudius-Robert Graves<br />From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs Basil E. Frankweiler-E.L. Konigsburg<br />Dalva-Jim Harrison<br />5 Children and It-Edith Nesbit<br />Alice in Wonderland-Lewis Carroll<br />Ralph S. Mouse-Beverly Cleary<br />Henry V-William Shakespeare<br />Hobbit-JRR Tolkien<br />Omnivore's Dilemma-Michael Pollan<br />Roget's International Thesaurus<br />Death Comes for the Archbishop-Willa Cather<br />Stranger In a Strange Land-Robert Heinlein<br />Thurber Carnival-James Thurber<br />Collected Wodehouse-P.G. Wodehouse<br />1 Fish 2 Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish-Dr. Seuss<br />Once and Future King-T.H. White<br />Baron in the Trees-Italo Calvino<br />Cold Comfort Farm-Stella Gibbons<br />Rebecca-Daphne Du Maurier<br />Pillow Book of Sei Shonegon-Arthur Waley<br />Mastering the Art of French Cooking-Julia Child<br />Dune-Frank Herbert<br />Portable Dorthy Parker-Dorothy Parker<br />Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down-Anne Fadiman<br />Living the Good Life-Linda Cockburn<br />Boggs: A Comedy of Values-Lawrence Weschler<br />Bury Me Standing-Isabel Fonseca<br />Wide Sargasso Sea-Jean Rhys<br />Wind In the Door-Madeline L'Engle<br />Chess Garden-Brooks Hansen<br />Witch of Blackbird Pond-Elizabeth George Speare<br />You Can't Say You Can't Play-Vivian Paley<br />High Wind In Jamaica-Richard Hughes<br />Silver Palate Cookbook-Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins<br />Ubik-Philip K. Dick<br />Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy-Sigird Undset<br />Fingersmith-Sarah Waters<br />Island of the Blue Dolphin-Scott O'Dell<br />Member of the Wedding-Carson McCullers<br />Comedians-Graham Greene<br />Killer Inside Me-Jim Thompson<br />Most of S. J. Perleman<br />Dracula-Bram Stoker<br />Zuleika Dobson-Max Beerbohm<br />Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor-Flannery O'Connor<br />Egg & I-Betty MacDonald<br />If On a Winter's Night a Traveler-Italo Calvino<br />Prime of Miss Jean Brodie-Muriel Spark<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-8799171650643909814?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-38187172267689935352011-11-11T13:09:00.003-06:002011-11-11T13:32:27.926-06:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Terry Whittaker: Viewpoint Books. Columbus, IN. 47201</span><br />Fahrenheit 451-Ray Bradbury<br />Year of Wonders-Geraldine Brooks<br />March-Geraldine Brooks<br />A Clockwork Orange-Anthony Burgess<br />In Cold Blood-Truman Capote<br />The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay-Michael Chabon<br />An Arsonist’s Guide to the Writer’s Homes of New England-Brock Clarke<br />The Brothers Karamazov-Fyodor Dostoyevsky<br />Crime and Punishment-Fyodor Dostoyevsky<br />Middlesex-Jeffrey Eugenides<br />A Fan’s Notes-Frederick Exley<br />White Oleander-Janet Fitch<br />Everything is Illuminated-Jonathan Safran Foer<br />Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close-Jonathan Safran Foer<br />The Corrections-Jonathan Franzen<br />Ellen Foster-Kaye Gibbons<br />Chaos: Making a New Science-James Gleick<br />Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History-Stephen Jay Gould<br />The Tin Drum-Gunter Grass<br />Snow Falling on Cedars-David Guterson<br />Riddley Walker-Russell Hoban<br />The Posionwood Bible-Barbara Kingsolver<br />Into the Wild-Jon Krakauer<br />The Spy Who Came in from the Cold-John LeCarre<br />To Kill a Mockingbird-Harper Lee<br />The Fixer-Bernard Malamud<br />Chronicle of a Death Foretold-Garbrel Garcia Marquez<br />Killing Mr. Watson-Peter Mathiesson<br />The Road-Cormac McCarthy <br />Let the Great World Spin-Colum McCann<br />Atonement-Ian McEwan<br />Lonesome Dove-Larry McMurtry<br />The River of Doubt-Candace Millard <br />Beloved-Toni Morrison<br />The Shipping News-E.Annie Proulx<br />The Milagro Bean Field War-John Nichols<br />Going After Caciatto-Tim O’Brien<br />Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance-Robert Pirsig<br />Empire Falls-Richard Russo<br />White Teeth-Zadie Smith <br />Longitude-Dava Sobel<br />The Confessions of Nat Turner-William Styron<br />The Mosquito Coast-Paul Theroux<br />War and Peace-Leo Tolstoy<br />A Confederacy of Dunces-John Kennedy Toole<br />Fathers and Sons-Ivan Turgenev<br />Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant-Anne Tyler<br />Cutting For Stone-Abraham Verghese <br />The Book Thief-Markus Zusak<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-3818717226768993535?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-41532921594019249722011-11-07T14:18:00.003-06:002011-11-07T15:35:33.114-06:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Josh Christie: Sherman's Books and Stationery in Freeport: 128 Main St, Freeport, ME 04032(Their Bar Harbor store has been open since 1886). </span> <br /> Doctor Olaf van Schuler’s Brain by Kirsten Menger-Anderson<br /> The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon<br /> A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz<br /> The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell<br /> The Story of Sugarloaf by John Christie<br /> World War Z by Max Brooks<br /> The Nightly News by Jonathan Hickman<br /> 1984 by George Orwell<br /> The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz<br /> The Naked Pint by Christina Perozzi and Hallie Beaune<br /> Active Liberty by Stephen Breyer<br /> Speaking Freely by Floyd Abrams<br /> Local by Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly<br /> Johannes Cabal the Necromancer by Jonathan Howard<br /> The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway<br /> Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner<br /> Extra Lives by Tom Bissell<br /> One and the Same by Abigail Pogrebin<br /> Mr. Peanut by Adam Ross<br /> Wednesday Comics<br /> I Found This Funny by Judd Apatow<br /> Guide to Getting It On by Paul Joannides<br /> Actual Air by David Berman<br /> The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan<br /> In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson<br /> The Magicians by Lev Grossman<br /> The Filter Bubble by Eli Pariser<br /> The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern<br /> Last Call by Daniel Okrent<br /> Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff<br /> Phonogram, The Singles Club by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie<br /> Hard Rain Falling by Don Carpenter<br /> I Married You for Happiness by Lily Tuck<br /> The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt<br /> The Vikings by Robert Ferguson<br /> Bonk by Mary Roach<br /> Good Eggs by Phoebe Potts<br /> K Blows Top by Peter Carlson<br /> The Citizen’s Constitution by Seth Lipsky<br /> Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel M. Klein<br /> Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk by Legs McNeil<br /> The Ridiculous Race by Steve Hely and Vali Chandrasekaran<br /> All the Way Home: Building a Family in a Falling-Down House by David Giffels<br /> Socrates Café by Christopher Phillips<br /> Live from New York by Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller<br /> The Ascent of Rum Doodle by W.E. Bowman<br /> This Life is in Your Hands by Melissa Coleman<br /> Red, White and Brew by Brian Yaeger<br /> The House of Tomorrow by Peter Bognanni<br /> In Praise of Slowness by Carl Honore<br /><br /><br />Also, feel free to keep those lists coming to us at micawbers@popp.net<br />It is easiest if they comes as text in the e-mail but can come as an attachment.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-4153292159401924972?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-7193980299200707602011-10-27T07:43:00.002-05:002011-10-27T07:49:54.422-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Eowyn Ivey: Fireside Books. Palmer, AK. 99645</span><br /><br />Adventures of Cow, Lori Korchek<br />The Age of Wonder: The Romantic Generation and the Discovery of the Beauty and Terror of Science, Richard Holmes<br />All the Powerful Invisible Things: A Sportswoman's Notebook, Gretchen Legler<br />All the Pretty Horses, Cormac McCarthy<br />Angle of Repose, Wallace Stegner<br />The Art of Fielding, Chad Harbach<br />The Art of Racing in the Rain, Garth Stein<br />As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner<br />Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie<br />Beloved, Toni Morrison<br />The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz<br />Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier<br />The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway<br />Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter, Tom Franklin<br />Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Jeff Kinney<br />A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry<br />Frankenstein, Mary Shelley<br />The Giver, Lois Lowry<br />The Good Earth, Pearl Buck<br />Goodnight Moon, Margaret Wise Brown<br />The Green Age of Asher Witherow, M. Allen Cunningham<br />Housekeeping, Marilynne Robinson<br />The Ice-Shirt (Seven Dreams), William T. Vollmann<br />If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things, Jon McGregor<br />Let the Great World Spin, Colum McCann<br />Life of Pi, Yann Martel <br />Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry<br />Love Medicine, Louise Erdrich <br />My Life in France, Julia Child<br />And Her Soul Out Of Nothing, Olena Kalytiak Davis <br />Ordinary Wolves, Seth Kantner<br />Peter Pan, J.M. Barrie<br />The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey, Candice Millard<br />Ship Breaker, Paolo Bacigalupi<br />The Shipping News, Annie Proulx<br />The Spanish Bow, Andromeda Romano-Lax<br />The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Anne Fadiman<br />Stoner, John Williams<br />Suite Francaise, Irene Nemirovsky<br />The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien<br />Then We Came to the End, Joshua Ferris <br />Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe<br />Tinkers, Paul Harding<br />True Grit, Charles Portis <br />Two in the Far North, Margaret E. Murie<br />Two Old Women, Velma Wallis<br />We Are in a Book!, Mo Willems <br />What is the What, Dave Eggers<br />Winter's Tale, Mark Helprin<br />A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L'Engle<br /><br />It is worth mentioning that Eowyn's novel "The Snow Child" releases in the US on Feb 1, 2012.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-719398029920070760?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-72005532339847411512011-10-26T12:35:00.001-05:002011-10-26T12:36:41.910-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Sheryl Cotleur: Book Passage. Corte Madera, CA. 94925</span><br /><br />Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison (actually everything by her)<br />Tinkers by Paul Harding <br />Ancient Child by N. Scott Momaday<br />Power by Linda Hogan<br />Lightning Bird by Lyall Watson<br />People of the Sea by David Thomson<br />A Mantis Carol by Laurens Van Der Post<br />On Canaan’s Side by Sebastian Barry<br />Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng<br />Bear by Marian Engel<br />Radical Hope by Jonathan Lear<br />Best of It by Kay Ryan<br />Alive Together by Lisel Mueller<br />The Widow and the Tree by Sonny Brewer<br />Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes<br />Tree of Meaning by Robert Bringhurst<br />Voices of the First Day by Robert Lawlor<br />Wisdom of the Mythtellers by Sean Kane<br />Boys of Our Youth by Joann Beard<br />Watch With Me by Wendell Berry<br />Other Side of Eden by Hugh Brody<br />Eye of the Albatross by Carl Safina<br />Memories, Dreams, Reflections by C.G. Jung<br />Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones<br />Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien<br />We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families by Philip Gourevitch<br />Move Your Shadow by Joseph Lelyveld<br />Grass Dancer by Susan Power<br />Black Elk Speaks by John Neihardt<br />Running in the Family by Michael Ondaatje<br />The Storyteller by Mario Vargas LLohsa<br />Skull Mantra by Eliot Pattison<br />La Maravilla by Alfredo Vea, Jr.<br />Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart<br />Geography of the Heart by Fenton Johnson<br />Light At The Edge of The World by Wade Davis<br />At Play in the Fields of the Lord by Peter Mattheisen<br />Eva Luna by Isabel Allende<br />Generosity by Richard Powers<br />Man Who Killed The Deer by Frank Waters<br />Dry White Season by Andre Brink<br />An Ordinary Man by Paul Rusesabagina<br />Refuge by Terry Tempest Williams<br />Housekeeping by Marilyn Robinson<br />New and Selected Poems by Mary Oliver<br />Where Rivers Change Direction by Mark Spragg<br />Twenty Poems of Love and a Song of Despair by Pablo Neruda<br />Classics for Pleasure by Michael Dirda<br />Kim by Rudyard Kipling<br />Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obreht<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-7200553233984741151?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-11207988641464301082011-10-25T09:57:00.002-05:002011-10-25T10:05:28.206-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Michael Barnard: Rakestraw Books. Danville, CA. 94526</span><br /><br />The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon <br />The Gastronomical Me by M. F. K. Fisher <br />The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomaso di Lampedusa <br />The Weekend by Peter Cameron <br />What's Bred in the Bone by Robertson Davies <br />The Three Junes by Julia Glass <br />Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susannah Clarke <br />The Decline & Fall of Practically Everybody by Will Cuppy <br />Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen <br />Rip-Rap and Cold Mountain Poems by Gary Snyder <br />The Magicians by Lev Grossman <br />Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman <br />The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Schaffer & Annie Barrows <br />A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor <br />The Blessing by Nancy Mitford <br />Cabal by Michael Dibdin <br />The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman <br />Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin <br />Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea by Gary Kinder <br />The Rape of Europa by Lynn Nicholas <br />Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney <br />King Matt the First by Janusz Korczak <br />Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce <br />A Boy's Own Story by Edmund White <br />Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac <br />The Franchise Affair by Josephine Tey <br />The Prime of Miss Jean Brody by Muriel Spark <br />The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne by Brian Moore <br />Last Letters from Hav by Jan Morris <br />A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula LeGuin <br />Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris by A. J. Liebling <br />Of Love and Other Demons by Gabriel Garcia Marquez <br />The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach <br />A Home at the End of the World by Michael Cunningham <br />The Ninemile Wolves by Rick Bass <br />Bleak House by Charles Dickens <br />Harouan and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie <br />White Teeth by Zadie Smith <br />Zeitoun by Dave Eggers <br />The Gammage Cup by Carol Kendall <br />The Bottom of the Harbor by Joseph Mitchell <br />Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym <br />The Phantom Tollbooth by Norman Juster <br />A Room with a View by E. M. Forster <br />Mapp & Lucia by E. F. Benson <br />West of Here by Jonathan Evison <br />Then There Were Five by Elizabeth Enright <br />Comfort and Joy by Jim Grimsley <br />At Close Range and Other Stories by Annie Proulx <br />Queen of the South by Arturo Perez Reverte<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-1120798864146430108?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-25969384209198547912011-10-24T14:39:00.001-05:002011-10-24T14:42:51.439-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Liz Whaley: Water Street Bookstore. Exeter, NH. 03833</span><br /><br />1. Arnow, Harriette The Dollmaker <br />2. Atwood, Margaret The Blind Assassin<br />3. Atwood, Margaret The Handmaid’s Tale<br />4. Austen, Jane Persuasion<br />5. Austen, Jane Pride and Prejudice<br />6. Barker, Pat Regeneration<br />7. Brittain, Vera Testament of Youth (nonfiction)<br />8. Bronte, Charlotte Jane Eyre<br />9. Byatt, A.S. Possession<br />10. Cather, Willa My Antonia<br />11. Cather, Willa O Pioneers!<br />12. De Bernieres, Louis Corelli’s Mandolin<br />13. Dickens, Charles Great Expectations<br />14. Dostoevsky, Fyodor The Brothers Karamazov<br />15. Drabble, Margaret The Realms of Gold<br />16. Du Maurier, Daphne Rebecca<br />17. Ehrlich, Greta The Solace of Open Spaces (nonfiction)<br />18. Eliot, George Middlemarch<br />19. Faulkner, William Light in August<br />20. Fitzgerald, F.Scott Tender Is the Night<br />21. Frazier, Charles Cold Mountain<br />22. Gibbons, Stella Cold Comfort Farm<br />23. Haien, Jeannette The All of It<br />24. Hegi, Ursula Stones from the River<br />25. Hemingway, Ernest For Whom the Bell Tolls<br />26. Hurston, Zora Neale Their Eyes Were Watching God<br />27. Lee, Harper To Kill a Mockingbird<br />28. Lippi, Rosina Homestead<br />29. Llewellyn, Richard How Green Was My Valley<br />30. Morrison, Toni Beloved<br />31. Morrison, Toni Song of Solomon<br />32. Morrison, Toni Sula<br />33. Munro, Alice Friend of My Youth<br />34. Piercy, Marge Gone to Soldiers<br />35. Proulx, Annie Close Range: Wyoming Stories<br />36. Robertson, Adele Crockett The Orchard: A Memoir (nonfiction)<br />37. Robinson, Marilynne Housekeeping<br />38. Rose, Phyllis Parallel Lives: Five Victorian Marriages (nonfiction)<br />39. Saint Exupery, Antoine de Wind, Sand and Stars (nonfiction)<br />40. Shakespeare, William Hamlet<br />41. Shakespeare, William King Lear<br />42. Shakespeare, William Twelfth Night<br />43. Stegner, Wallace Angle of Repose<br />44. Stegner, Wallace Crossing to Safety<br />45. Undset, Sigrid Kristin Lavransdatter<br />46. Urquhart, Jane The Stone Carvers<br />47. Wiesenthal, Simon The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness (nonfiction)<br />48. Woolf, Virginia Mrs. Dalloway<br />49. Woolf, Virginia A Room of One’s Own (nonfiction)<br />50. Woolf, Virginia Three Guineas (nonfiction)<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-2596938420919854791?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-77279361084132124322011-10-21T08:07:00.008-05:002011-10-21T09:52:13.745-05:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-y4r7T-dobrg/TqF656G5UyI/AAAAAAAAAQ8/Jar1PtlvinI/s1600/Rotis2-320x346.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 346px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-y4r7T-dobrg/TqF656G5UyI/AAAAAAAAAQ8/Jar1PtlvinI/s400/Rotis2-320x346.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5665944941478105890" /></a><br />Or, the un-death of the book. Much print and time and thought is spent these days to dithering about the book industry and how to go forward with old, boring, paper books. The answer, sometimes, is right in front of us. For some time one of my main concerns was the seemingly out-of-whack pricing in terms of new books. Biographies and Collected Poems were $35 or $40. New fiction was climbing up and over $25 towards $30. Those problems still exist--but there is a much more positive trend at work.<br /><br />The flip-side of our technological 'problem' is that all coins have two sides. More books are being made into art objects currently at reasonable prices. Technology has made that possible. Art books, to be sure, are one category that has seen sales dip in museum and other specialty stores. But it isn't just art books that have become beautiful. It crosses all genres. In the past few weeks I have posted two books to our Facebook page that have forced me to stop unpacking boxes to sit and peruse and enjoy. <br /><br />The first was Matt Kish's "Moby Dick in Pictures" which should be appreciated not only for its glorious work but also for the certain toil and hours spent creating it. It contains a piece of art for each page of Melville's true American masterpiece. There is short passage to accompany each page that comes from the book. I have already seen many customers page through it and say, "This is going on my holiday list." I'm one of them.<br /><br />The second was <a href="http://www.gingkopress.com/09-lit/vladimir-nabokov-pale-fire.html">Gingko Press'</a> artistic rendition of Nabokov's "Pale Fire." Priced at $35 it comes with a kind of box set with two booklets and set of index cards. Everyone involved in this project should be proud of the end project--a work that combines words with images that ends with a tactile thing greater than the sum of its parts. This is not the first time Gingko has taken Nabokov to a new level. A few years back they had a book entitled "Alphabet in Color" that dealt with Nabokov's synesthesia. $25 and worth every single penny.<br /><br />The bike trend has hit full-force and with Minneapolis/St. Paul consistently listed as one of the most bikeable areas in the country we've got the interest to buy books. Three titles we're currently featuring include a local bike map(that is in its 9th or 10th printing) that is made of paper that seems to rubber. It doesn't tear(and believe me, many a child has tried) and is water-resistant. It sells for $10.95. <a href="http://www.chroniclebooks.com/titles/cyclepedia.html">Cyclepedia</a> comes to us from Chronicle Books, always doing good design on all manner of things, and is a look at 100 different bikes. Also $35. Last is a leather bound journal that comes with Nigel Peake drawings. It has some small folders to place things and lots of blank pages to jot down routes or ideas. It is small enough to easily fit in any handle bag and it costs $14.95. Under fifteen books with a leather cover with a handsome wheel design.<br /><br />Not to ignore the more standard trade books. Archipelago, NYRB, Open Letter and many others are giving their books extra oomph in terms of production. They well know a book can no longer just be a book in order to catch a browser's eye and purse.<br /><br />The kids books we see coming in every day are a giant step up from what they were even five years ago. Picture books, YA titles, board books and all kinds of clever packaging and design make them worth looking at over and over.<br /><br />Finally, cookbooks. There used to be cookbooks that fell into either utilitarian(you could actually follow the recipes and make good food) or art/photo cookbooks. Now these two groups are melding together. I got one in the mail earlier this week from Melville House. I've spouted long and long for these guys who have their hands in so many great things its become hard to track. They brought Hans Fallada to the American audience and run a series called the Neversink Library which is new favorite of mine. They, more recently, have started a program for bookstores(indie and chain) to adopt a penguin by <a href="http://mhpbooks.com/40026/buy-a-book-and-help-adopt-a-penguin/">selling</a> some copies of their books. Yet it is one of their food books I've been spending time with the past three days. Stephane Reynaud's "Rotis" is food porn in its pictures and art but remains, at its best, a book that any home cook can work with and enjoy.<br /><br />Does all of this mean the questions and problems facing us do not exist? Not at all. But they are a big part of the possible solutions.<br /><br />Thanks go to Kurtis Scaletta, local author and friend of the store, for urging me to take this on in some detail.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-7727936108413212432?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-35776443514347872232011-10-19T15:01:00.002-05:002011-10-19T15:04:06.743-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Carla Jimenez: Inkwood Books. Tampa, FL. 33609.<br /></span><br />FICTION:<br /> <br />AMERICAN RUST, PHILIPP MEYER<br />ASSORTED FIRE EVENTS, DAVID MEANS<br />BEFORE WOMEN HAD WINGS, CONNIE MAY FOWLER<br />THE BIRD ARTIST, HOWARD NORMAN<br />A BLIND MAN CAN SEE HOW MUCH I LOVE YOU, AMY BLOOM<br />BREATH, TIM WINTON<br />DREAMING IN CUBAN, CRISTINA GARCIA<br />ELLA MINNOW PEA, MARK DUNN<br />FATHER AND SON, LARRY BROWN<br />FEAST OF LOVE, CHARLES BAXTER<br />THE GATHERING, ANNE ENRIGHT<br />GRUB, ELISE BLACKWELL<br />IN CUBA I WAS A GERMAN SHEPHERD, ANA MENENDEZ<br />LARRY'S PARTY, CAROL SHIELDS<br />THE LITTLE FRIEND, DONNA TARTT<br />LUSH LIFE, RICHARD PRICE<br />THE MARCH, E.L. DOCTOROW<br />MEN GIVING MONEY, WOMEN LAUGHING, ALICE MATTISON<br />MYSTIC RIVER, DENNIS LEHANE<br />THE NAMESAKE, JHUMPA LAHIRI<br />NOBODY'S FOOL, RICHARD RUSSO<br />POISONWOOD BIBLE, BARBARA KINGSOLVER<br />ROUND ROCK, MICHELE HUNEVEN<br />SECRET NAMES OF WOMEN, LYNN BARRETT<br />SISTERS OF THE HEART, CHITRA DIVAKARUNI<br />SNOW FLOWER AND THE SECRET FAN, LISA SEE<br />SUITE FRANCAISE, IRENE NEMIROVSKY<br />THE SURRENDERED, CHANG RAE LEE<br />UNDER COVER OF DAYLIGHT, JAMES W. HALL<br />THE WELL AND THE MINE, GIN PHILLIPS<br />WHITE TEETH, ZADIE SMITH<br /> <br />NONFICTION:<br />BIG BOX SWINDLE, STACY MITCHELL<br />BIRD BY BIRD, ANNIE LAMOTT<br />THE BOOK OF AWAKENING, MARK NEPO<br />COMFORTABLE WITH UNCERTAINTY, PEMA CHODRON<br />EXUBERANCE, KAY REDFIELD JAMISON<br />FAST FOOD NATION, ERIC SCHLOSSER<br />I THOUGHT MY FATHER WAS GOD, NATIONAL STORY PROJECT<br />THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS, REBECCA SKLOOT<br />IN PRAISE OF SLOWNESS, CARL HONORE<br />LAST CHILD IN THE WOODS, RICHARD LOUV<br />THE LIARS CLUB, MARY KARR<br />LISTENING IS AN ACT OF LOVE, DAVE ISAY<br />DEEP ECONOMY, BILL McKIBBEN<br />THE LOST ART OF READING, DAVID ULIN<br />PRAYERS FOR HEALING: 365...FROM AROUND THE WORLD, MAGGIE OMAN et al<br />THE TENDER BAR, J.R. MOEHRINGER<br />ULTIMATE PUNISHMENT, SCOTT TUROW<br />THE WARMTH OF OTHER SUNS, ISABEL WILKERSON<br />THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING, JOAN DIDION<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-3577644351434787223?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-32517048692223791562011-10-18T14:44:00.002-05:002011-10-18T14:46:48.407-05:00I'm still wrestling with broken attachments but we're nearing the end of that. I promise.<br /><br />In more uplifting news, Check out <a href="http://www.penguinlost.com/bookstores/">this</a> promo which is one of the most creative, and zaniest, I've yet heard of. Melville House is yet again doing cool stuff with their fine books.<br /><br />Help us, and these other listed stores, become a penguin adoptive parent.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-3251704869222379156?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-18541533208114619582011-10-14T15:05:00.002-05:002011-10-14T15:09:12.191-05:00It is with clenched fists that I type these words--no list today. Outlook Express is winning the battle yet I shall win the war. <br /><br />And, yes, I am aware that most people stopped using OE in about 1997.<br /><br />Until next week when we return with more lists, a penguin named Mr. Micawber(soon) and some chatter about all the fantastic art books coming out this Fall.<br /><br />Have fun and be nice...<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-1854153320811461958?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-44912218192571143602011-10-13T15:55:00.003-05:002011-10-25T10:08:37.557-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Jean Westcott: Olsson's Books and Records. Washington, DC.(Closed in 2006)</span><br />The Lord of the Rings—JRR Tolkein<br />His Dark Materials—Phillip Pullman<br />Their Eyes were Watching God—Zora Neil Hurston<br />Fall on Your Knees—Anne Marie MacDonald<br />Affliction—Russell Banks<br />Handmaid’s Tale—Margaret Atwood<br />A Series of Unfortunate Events—Lemony Snicket<br />Chaos—James Gleik<br />Harry Potter series—J K Rowling<br />The Kiss of the Spider Woman—Manuel Puig<br />Nobody’s Fool—Rick Russo<br />The Monster at the End of this Book—Jon Stone<br />Eva Moves the Furniture—Margot Livesey<br />Waiting for an Angel—Helon Habila<br />Beloved—Toni Morrison<br />Angela’s Ashes—Frank McCourt<br />The Watsons Go to Birmingham—Christopher Paul Curtis<br />So The Wind Won’t Blow it All Away—Richard Brautigan<br />To a God Unknown—John Steinbeck<br />Eureka Street—Robert McLiam Wilson<br />Complete Stories of Edgar Allen Poe<br />The Master and Margarita—Mikael Bulgakov<br />Leaves of Grass—Walt Whitman<br />Collected Stories of Jean Rhys<br />Labyrinths—Jorge Luis Borges<br />The Hunger Games—Suzanne Collins<br />Island of the Blue Dolphins—Scott O’Dell<br />Beowulf<br />Who Will Run the Frog Hospital—Lorrie Moore<br />Source of Light—Reynolds Price<br />Selected Stories of Alice Munro<br />Foxfire—Joyce Carol Oates<br />World’s End—TC Boyle<br />Love is Hell—Matt Groening<br />Ooh la la Max in Love—Maira Kalman<br />Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius—David Eggers<br />Maus—Art Spiegelman<br />For Whom the Bell Tolls—Hemingway<br />Complete Fairy Tales—Brothers Grimm<br />Third Policeman—Flann O’Brien<br />Mythology—Edith Hamilton<br />Complexity—H. Mitchell Waldrop<br />Complete Stories of Flannery O’Connor<br />Pobby and Dingan—Ben Rice<br />Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrel—Susanna Clarke<br />The Room—Emma Donohue<br />Kaffir Boy—Mark Mathabane<br />The Trial—Franz Kafka<br />Holes—Louis Sachar<br />That Was Then, This is Now, SE Hinton<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-4491221819257114360?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-42501597252368878062011-10-12T09:22:00.002-05:002011-10-12T09:24:29.211-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Kimberly Stephenson: McGill University. Montreal, Quebec, Canada.</span> <br /><br />1)Lord of the Rings - Tolkien<br />2) Bleak House - Dickens<br />3) To Kill a Mockingbird - Lee<br />4) Chronicles of Narnia - Lewis<br />5) Les Miserables - Hugo<br />6) Count of Monte Cristo - Dumas<br />7) My Life and Hard Times - Thurber<br />8) Atonement - McEwan<br />9) Main Street -Lewis<br />10) Jungle - Sinclair<br />11) Great Gatsby - Fitzgerald<br />12) Dubliners - Joyce<br />13) Daughter of Time - Tey<br />14) Coventry - Humphreys<br />15) American Way of Death – Mitford<br />16) Grapes of Wrath - Steinbeck<br />17) Kim - Kipling<br />18) Tin Flute - Roy<br />19) Confederacy of Dunces - Toole<br />20) Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Twain<br />21) Kidnapped - Stevenson<br />22) When the Lights Go Down – Kael<br />23) Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci – Spence<br />24) Time and Again - Finney<br />25) Path to Power – Caro<br />26) Great Deluge – Brinkley<br />27) Suspects – Thomson<br />28) Black Cherry Blues - Burke<br />29) Mrs. Dalloway - Woolf<br />30) Resurrection - Tolstoy<br />31) Battle Cry of Freedom – MacPherson<br />32) World War Z -Brooks<br />33) Human Comedy - Saroyan<br />34) Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Smith<br />35) Stone Angel - Laurence<br />36) Lady Oracle - Atwood<br />37) Three Day Road - Boyden<br />38) Wuthering Heights - Bronte<br />39) Suttree - McCarthy<br />40) Stand - King<br />41) Harry Potter - Rowling<br />42) Call of the Wild - London<br />43) World's End - Boyle<br />44) 1984- Orwell<br />45) Moonstone - Collins<br />46) Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz - Richler<br />47) Ragtime - Doctorow<br />48) Henry and Clara - Mallon<br />49) Complete Sherlock Holmes - Doyle<br />50) Cal - Maclaverty<br /><br /><br />A special note that this is our first list from outside the United States.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-4250159725236887806?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-43174928852403769232011-10-11T15:14:00.002-05:002011-10-11T15:16:48.610-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Melanie Tighe: Dog-Eared Pages. Phoenix, AZ. 85032</span><br /><br />1. Harry Potter (series)- J.K. Rowling<br />2. Captain Underpants (series)-Dave Pilkey<br />3. Diary of a Wimpy Kid (series) Jeff Kinney<br />4. Magic Tree House (series) Mary Pope Osborne<br />5. Goosebumps (series) R.L. Stine<br />6. Nancy Drew (series) Carolyn Keene<br />7. Hardy Boys (series) Frank Dixon<br />8. 39 Clues (series) various authors<br />9. Guardians of Ga’hoole (series) Kathryn Lasky<br />10. Warriors (series) Erin Hunter<br />11. Eragon (series) Christopher Paolini<br />12. The Lightening Thief (series) Rick Riordan<br />13. Hunger Games (series) Suzanne Collins<br />14. Crank (series) Ellen Hopkins<br />15. The Dark is Rising (series) Susan Cooper<br />16. Narnia (series) C.S. Lewis<br />17. The Uglies (series) Scott Westerfield<br />18. TTYL (series) Lauren Myracle<br />19. Junie B. Jones (series) Barbara Park<br />20. Ramona (series) Beverly Cleary<br />21. Choose Your Own Adventure (series) various authors<br />22. American Girls (series) various authors<br />23. Twilight (series) Stephenie Meyer<br />24. Left Behind Kids (series) Jerry B. Jenkins and Tim LaHaye<br />25. Geronimo Stilton (series) Geronimo Stilton<br />26. Little House on the Prairie Laura Ingalls Wilder<br />27. Frindle Andrew Clements<br />28. The Hobbit J.R.R. Tolkien<br />29. Call of the Wild Jack London<br />30. Alice in Wonderland Lewis Carroll<br />31. The Secret Garden Frances Hodgson Burnett<br />32. Where the Sidewalk Ends Shel Silverstein<br />33. The Borrowers Mary Norton<br />34. The Minstrel’s Tale Anna Questerly<br />35. Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing Judy Blume<br />36. Are You There God It’s Me, Margaret Judy Blume<br />37. James and the Giant Peach Roald Dahl<br />38. Indian in the Cupboard Lynn Reid Banks<br />39. Tale of Desperaux Kate DiCamillo<br />40. Mr. Popper’s Penguins Richard and Florence Atwater<br />41. A Wrinkle in Time Madeleine L'Engle<br />42. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler E. L. Konigsburg<br />43. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh Robert C. O’Brien<br />44. The Giver Lois Lowry<br />45.Redwall Brian Jacques<br />46. Number the Stars Lois Lowry<br />47. Charlotte’s Web E.B. White<br />48. The Cricket in Times Square George Selden<br />49. A Long Way From Chicago Scott Peck<br />50. Lord of the Flies William Golding<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-4317492885240376923?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-44830028372220541012011-10-07T09:08:00.003-05:002011-10-07T14:49:53.825-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Sue Gazell: BookMan/BookWoman Books. Nashville, TN. 37212.</span><br /><br />1. The Coroner’s Lunch (series) - Colin Cotterill<br />2. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon<br />3. The Master Butchers’ Singing Club - Louise Erdrich<br />4. Last Reports on the Miracles of Little No Horse Louise Erdrich<br />5. A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini<br />6. The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver<br />7. Lamb - Christopher Moore<br />8. Peace Like a River - Leif Enger<br />9. Big Rock Candy Mountain - Wallace Stegner<br />10. Shanghai Girls - Lisa See<br />11. Dreams of Joy - Lisa See<br />12. Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry<br />13. The Voyage of the Narwhal - Andrea Barrett<br />14. Fatu Hiva - Thor Heyerdahl<br />15. The Bone People - Keri Hulme<br />16. The Arctic Grail - Pierre Berton<br />17. The Uttermost Part of the Earth - E. Lucas Bridges<br />18. Tschiffely’s Ride - A. F. Tschiffely<br />19. This Way Southward - A. F. Tschiffely<br />20. Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand<br />21. A Yellow Raft in Blue Water - Michael Dorris<br />22. This Cold Heaven - Gretel Ehrlich<br />23. Enchanted Vagabonds - Dana and Ginger Lamb<br />24. The Art if Racing in the Rain – Garth Stein<br />25. Yes is Better Than No - Byrd Baylor<br />26. anything by Haruki Murakami - The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, if I have to make a choice<br />27. The Gift of Rain - Tan Twan Eng<br />28. The Grass Dancer - Susan Power<br />29. City of Tranquil Light - Bo Caldwell<br />30. The Shaman Sings (series) – James Doss<br />31. Tales of the Otori series - Lian Hearn<br />(Across the Nightingale Floor, first in series)<br />32. Outlander(series) - Diana Gabaldon<br />33. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry<br />34. Forbidden Journey - Ella Maillart<br />35. News from Tartary - Peter Fleming<br />36. A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving<br />37. Shogun - James Clavell<br />38. One River - Wade Davis<br />39. Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett<br />40. The Thorn Birds - Colleen McCullough<br />41. Angle of Repose - Wallace Stegner<br />42. The Bounty - Caroline Alexander<br />43. The Last Kings of Thule - Jean Malaurie<br />44. The Noose of Laurels - Wally Herbert<br />45. The Cloud Forest (or anything by) - Peter Matthiessen<br />46. Prodigal Summer - Barbara Kingsolver<br />47. The Lacuna - Barbara Kingsolver<br />48. Shantaram - Gregory David Roberts<br />49. The Skull Mantra (series) - Eliot Pattison<br />50. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-4483002837222054101?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-16665604626473407552011-10-06T14:38:00.002-05:002011-10-06T14:47:34.470-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Kira Apple: Wise Owl Books. West Reading, Pennsylvania. 19611.</span><br /><br /> 1. Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams<br /> 2. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams<br /> 3. The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov<br /> 4. The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov<br /> 5. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury<br /> 6. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontё<br /> 7. Dawn by Octavia Butler<br /> 8. Enchantment by Orson Scott Card<br /> 9. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card<br /> 10. Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus by Orson Scott Card<br /> 11. Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card<br /> 12. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie<br /> 13. The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie<br /> 14. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie<br /> 15. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins<br /> 16. Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney<br /> 17. Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman<br /> 18. The Midwife’s Apprentice by Karen Cushman<br /> 19. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More by Roald Dahl<br /> 20. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski<br /> 21. The Neverending Story by Michael Ende<br /> 22. Absalom, Absalom! By William Faulkner<br /> 23. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde<br /> 24. American Gods by Neil Gaiman<br /> 25. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman<br /> 26. The Princess Bride by William Goldman<br /> 27. Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris<br /> 28. Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman<br /> 29. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving<br /> 30. Dubliners by James Joyce<br /> 31. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova<br /> 32. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle<br /> 33. Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman<br /> 34. The Giver by Lois Lowry<br /> 35. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin<br /> 36. Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters<br /> 37. Roxaboxen by Alice McLarren<br /> 38. Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger<br /> 39. The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger<br /> 40. Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk<br /> 41. The Map of Time by Felix J. Palma<br /> 42. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman<br /> 43. The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin<br /> 44. Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls<br /> 45. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs<br /> 46. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss<br /> 47. Hyperion by Dan Simmons<br /> 48. A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip C. Stead and Erin E. Stead<br /> 49. The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner<br /> 50. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-1666560462647340755?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-24541852371084788572011-10-05T13:44:00.002-05:002011-10-05T13:47:29.415-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Carol Schneck: Schuler Books and Music. Okemos, MI. 48864</span><br />Fool on the Hill – Matt Ruff<br />Beekeeper's Apprentice – Laurie R. King<br />The Book of Joe – Jonathan Tropper<br />Motherless Brooklyn – Jonathan Lethem<br />A Home at the End of the World – Michael Cunningham<br />The Car Thief – Theodore Weesner<br />Leisure Seeker – Michael Zadoorian<br />Pictures of Perfection – Reginald Hill<br />Regeneration trilogy – Pat Barker<br />Mysteries of Pittsburgh – Michael Chabon<br />Sandman Slim – Richard Kadrey<br />Nobody's Fool – Richard Russo<br />Zen Flesh, Zen Bones – Paul Reps<br />Start Where You Are – Pema Chodron<br />The Joy of Living - Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche<br />The Chimney Sweeper's Boy – Barbara Vine (Ruth Rendell)<br />The Book of Ebenezer le Page – G.B. Edwards<br />Another Country – James Baldwin<br />Second Tree from the Corner – E.B. White<br />The Wee Free Men – Terry Pratchett<br />The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven – Sherman Alexie<br />Maisie Dobbs – Jacqueline Winspear<br />The Camomile Lawn – Mary Wesley<br />Citizen Vince – Jess Walter<br />Northline – Willy Vlautin<br />Look Me in the Eye – John Elder Robison<br />The Sweet Science – A.J. Liebling<br />On Boxing – Joyce Carol Oates<br />Skippy Dies – Paul Murray<br />Black Swan Green – David Mitchell<br />Up in the Old Hotel – Joseph Mitchell<br />If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things – Jon McGregor<br />I Am Not Myself These Days – Josh Kilmer-Purcell<br />The Fox in the Attic – Richard Hughes<br />Bangkok 8 – John Burdett<br />Paula Spencer – Roddy Doyle<br />Scent of the Missing – Susannah Charleson<br />Queer – William S. Burroughs<br />The Black Tower – Louis Bayard<br />Jenny and the Cat Club – Esther Averill<br />The Story of Ferdinand – Munro Leaf<br />Ten Thousand Saints – Eleanor Henderson<br />My Dear I Wanted to Tell You – Louisa Young<br />The Woodcutter – Reginald Hill<br />Armand Gamache series by Louise Penny<br />Inspector Montalbani series by Andrea Camilleri<br />Lynley/Havers series by Elizabeth George<br />Books I would handsell if they were in print: <br />48. Yesterday's Burdens by Robert M. Coates<br />49. The Crystal Cabinet by Mary Butts<br />50. Dogsbody by Diana Wynne Jones<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-2454185237108478857?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-13218144209075997882011-10-04T13:54:00.001-05:002011-10-04T18:20:07.093-05:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-34lDGtFVj5s/TouUn2NW4WI/AAAAAAAAAQ0/fRHW_nWjUlg/s1600/faulkner2.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 311px; height: 400px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-34lDGtFVj5s/TouUn2NW4WI/AAAAAAAAAQ0/fRHW_nWjUlg/s400/faulkner2.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5659780769008509282" /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-1321814420907599788?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-10139792952759419432011-10-03T12:24:00.004-05:002011-10-04T18:17:03.809-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Jenny Lyons/staff: The King's English. Salt Lake City, UT. 8410</span>5<br /><br /><br /><br />Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante<br />Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel<br />Let the Great World Spin, Colum McCann<br />The Tiger's Wife By Tea Obreht<br />Little Bee by Chris Cleave<br />Three Junes by Julia Glass<br />Wake of Forgiveness by Bruce Machart<br />This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathon Tropper<br />Last Night at the Lobster, Stewart O'Nan<br />Cutting for Stone, Abraham Verghese<br />Bottom of the 33rd by Dan Barry<br />Foreign Bodies By Cynthia Ozick<br />The Surrendered By Chang-rae Lee<br />Cutting for Stone By Abraham Verghese<br />Ransom By David Malouf<br />1861 by Adam Goodheart<br />The Tiger by John Vaillant<br />The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen<br />Charms for the Easy Life, Kaye Gibbon <br />The Highest Tide, Jim Lynch <br />Border Songs, Jim Lynch <br />Firmin, Sam Savage <br />Last Night at the Lobster, Stewart O'Nan <br />My Antonia, Willa Cather<br />Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth Strout<br />Where I'm Calling From, Raymond Carver<br />Motel Life, Willy Vlautin<br />Three Questions, Jon Muth<br />THE UNLIKELY ROMANCE OF KATE BJORKMAN by Louise Plummer<br />UNCIVIL SEASONS by Michael Malone<br />THE MADONNAS OF LENINGRAD by Deborah Dean<br />GOODNIGHT ME by Somebody Daddo<br />HOW TO SAVE A LIFE by Sara Zarr<br />City of Thieves, David Benioff<br />Graceland by Chris Abani<br />Suicide by Edouard Leve<br />The Western Lands by William Burroughs<br />Amulet by Roberto Bolano<br />Before Night Falls by Reinaldo Arenas<br />Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick<br />Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides<br />Juniper Berry by M.P. Kozlowsky<br />Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs<br />Girls Don't Fly, Kristen Chandler<br />Wolves Boys and Other Things that May Kill me, by Kristen Chandler<br />Scapegoat, by Dean Hale<br />Icefall, by Matt Kirby<br />Chihuahua Chase, Ann Cannon<br />A Place of Greater Safety By Hilary Mantel<br />Guernsey Potato Peel Pie Society by Annie Barrows and Mary Ann Schaefer<br /><br />Following comments from Hans--<br /><br />Betsy Burton, owner, wrote a memoir/history of this store a few years back which I enjoyed very much. I am sure they would be happy to <a href="http://www.kingsenglish.com/">sell</a> you a copy. Or your local would. <br /><br />In any case, this concludes the original twenty lists and puts us at 1,000 books. Thanks for checking in with us and keep doing so--tomorrow I'll post some miscellaneous fun stuff about these lists and on Wednesday I'll begin posting the rest of the lists in the order they got to me.<br /><br />Edit: I apologize for the two duplicates(thought I think it was multiple staff members naming a title). In any case, it was my(Hans') fault for not being clear about it. Here are two more titles from them--<br />Beekeeper’s Apprentice by Laurie King<br />Bricklayer by Noah Boyd<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-1013979295275941943?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-39720457792754514772011-09-30T07:15:00.002-05:002011-09-30T07:21:45.909-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Cody Morrison/Richard Howorth/Lyn Roberts: Square Books. Oxford, MS. 38655</span><br /><br />Richard Howorth-Square Books owner <br />Lit by Mary Karr<br />One Writer's Beginnings by Eudora Welty<br />Friend of My Youth by Alice Munro<br />The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides <br />Music of the Swamp by Lewis Nordan<br />Rock Springs by Richard Ford<br />Father & Son by Larry Brown<br />All God's Dangers by Theodore Rosengarten<br />Comedy in a Minor Key by Hans Keilson<br />Age of Grief by Jane Smiley<br />Round Rock by Michelle Huneven<br />Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward<br />The English Major by Jim Harrison<br />Resuscitation of a Hanged Man by Denis Johnson<br />Erasure by Percival Everett<br />Freedom by Jonathan Fanzen<br />The Adrian Mole Diaries by Sue Townsend<br />Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor<br />The Typist by Michael Knight<br />Selected Short Stories by William Faulkner<br />A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore<br />Long Last Happy by Barry Hannah<br />The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe<br />The Pleasures of the Damned by Charles Bukowski<br /><br />Cody Morrison, buyer at Sq Bks:<br />The Moviegoer by Walker Percy<br />Among the Thugs by Bill Buford<br />Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger<br />The Winter of Frankie Machine by Don Winslow<br />Balzac & the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie<br />Rides of the Midway by Lee Durkee<br />The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano<br />Lean on Pete by Willy Vlautin<br />The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obrhet<br />Ninety-two in the Shade by Thomas McGuane<br />Last Days of the Dogmen by Brad Watson<br />Dino by Nick Tosches<br />Sent For You Yesterday by John Edgar Wideman<br />The Salt Line by Elizabeth Spencer<br />Joe by Larry Brown<br /><br />Lyn Roberts, general mangager, Sq Bks<br />Poachers by Tom Franklin<br />The Last Good Kiss by James Crumley<br />Airships by Barry Hannah<br />The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski<br />The History of Love by Nicole Krauss<br />Border Songs by Jim Lynch<br />St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell<br />Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez<br />Atonement by Ian McEwan<br />Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys<br />The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier<br />Waterland by Graham Swift<br />The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien<br />As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner<br />The Moviegoer by Walker Percy<br /><br />I'm trying not to editorialize about the lists themselves but I'm fairly certain this is the first one that contains a book that hasn't actually been published yet. People are all crazed for Jeffrey Eugenides' new novel and it shows here. Square Books is the kind of store that authors, booksellers and readers all collectively swoon over. <a href="http://www.squarebooks.com/">They</a> have a good thing going.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-3972045779275451477?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-45871949893232328562011-09-27T09:11:00.002-05:002011-09-27T09:31:09.882-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Stefan Moorehead:Unabridged Bookstore. Chicago, IL. 60657</span><br />Last Werewolf--Glen Duncan<br />Visit from the Goon Squad--Jennifer Egan<br />Tiger's Wife--Tea Obreht<br />Splendid Conspiracy--Albert Cossery<br />Lord of Misrule--Jaimy Gordon<br />Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees--Lawrence Weschler<br />The Pale King--David Foster Wallace<br />Blood Horses--John Jeremiah Sullivan<br />Visitation--Jenny Erpenbeck<br />President is a Sick Man--Matthew Algeo<br />Conscience--Hector Malot<br />Forever War--Dexter Filkins<br />Embassytown--China Mieville<br />Local--Brian Wood<br />Sometimes a Great Notion--Ken Kesey<br />Sound and the Fury--William Faulkner<br />Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet--David Mitchell<br />Cloud Atlas--David Mitchell<br />Wind-up Bird Chronicle--Haruki Murakami<br />Confederacy of Dunces--John Kennedy Toole<br />The Ask--Sam Lipsyte<br />Absurdistan--Gary Shteyngart<br />Super Sad True Love Story--Gary Shteyngart<br />Lunatic at Large--J. Storer Clouston<br />You Shall Know our Velocity--Dave Eggers<br />On Writing--Stephen King<br />About a Mountain--John D'Agata<br />Blankets--Craig Thompson<br />Bottomless Bellybutton--Dash Shaw<br />The Scott Pilgrim series--Bryan Lee O'Malley<br />Savage Detectives--Roberto Bolano<br />The Hakawati--Rabih Alameddine<br />Lunar Park--Brett Easton Ellis<br />Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao--Junot Diaz<br />Freedom--Jonathan Franzen<br />Tree of Smoke--Denis Johnson<br />American Salvage--Bonnie Jo Campbell<br />Brain Dead Megaphone--George Saunders<br />The Mystery Guest--Gregoire Bouillier<br />The Language Instinct--Steven Pinker<br />Another Bullshit Night in Suck City--Nick Flynn<br />Stanley--Syd Hoff<br />I Drink for a Reason--David Cross<br />People are Unappealing--Sara Barron<br />Neuromancer--William Gibson<br />2001--Arthur C. Clarke<br />Childhood's End--Arthur C. Clarke<br />Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy--Douglas Adams<br />Hold Everything Dear--John Berger<br />The Memory of Fire Trilogy--Eduardo Galeano <br /><br />This is yet another case where one bookseller(Emily Pullen) pointed me to another. And how about Lawrence Weschler showing up on back-to-back lists? That, friends, is pure goodness.<br /><br />Also, I'll do my best to get tomorrow's post up as usual but I'll be in the hinterlands of MN wilderness and it may not happen. Do not fear: we shall return.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-4587194989323232856?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-52184616246468780842011-09-26T14:47:00.002-05:002011-09-26T14:51:42.563-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Jay D. Peterson:Magers&Quinn Booksellers. Minneapolis, MN. 55408</span><br />Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone--Deborah Madison<br />River Cottage Everyday--Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall<br />At My French Table--Jane Webster<br />Best Recipes in the World--Mark Bittman<br />Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees--Lawrence Weschler<br />River Town--Peter Hessler<br />The Heart Can Be Filled Anywhere on Earth--Bill Holm<br />Eccentric Islands--Bill Holm<br />The Whale--Philip Hoare<br />Canoeing with the Cree--Eric Sevareid<br />Wonder Bear--Tao Nyeu<br />Invention of Hugo Cabret--Brian Selznick<br />Book Thief--Markus Zuzak<br />Charley Harper's ABCs--Charley Harper<br />Charley Harper's 123s--Charley Harper<br />Charley Harper's Birds and Words--Charley Harper<br />Above the River : The Complete Poems of James Wright--James Wright<br />Four Quartets--T.S. Eliot<br />Dorothy Parker: What Fresh Hell is This?--Dorothy Parker<br />Collected Poems of George Seferis--George Seferis<br />Let the Great World Spin--Colum McCann<br />Out Stealing Horses--Per Petterson<br />Gilead--Marilynne Robinson<br />Home--Marilynne Robinson<br />Housekeeping--Marilynne Robinson<br />Visit from the Goon Squad--Jennifer Egan<br />Collected Tales of Nikolai Gogol--Nikolai Gogol<br />Difficult Loves--Italo Calvino<br />If on a Winter's Night a Traveler--Italo Calvino<br />History of Love--Nicole Krauss<br />Stoner--John Williams<br />Paris Review Interviews Vols 1-4--Philip Gourevitch(ed.)<br />This Side of Paradise--F. Scott Fitzgerald<br />Dud Avocado--Elaine Dundy<br />What is the What--Dave Eggers<br />Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay--Michael Chabon<br />WPA Guide to Minnesota--Complied by Federal Writer's Project<br />Death of the Dream : Farmhouses in the Heartland--William G. Gabler<br />Gourmet Rhapsody--Muriel Barbery<br />Heat--Bill Buford <br />A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again--David Foster Wallace<br />Atonement--Ian McEwan<br />Basil and Josephine Stories--F. Scott Fitzgerald<br />When Kafka was the Rage--Anatole Broyard<br />The Cook and the Gardener : A Year of Recipes and Writings from the French Countryside--Amanda Hesser<br />Parisians--Graham Robb<br />Eucalyptus--Murray Bail<br />Fargo Rock City--Chuck Klosterman<br />Anything by John Banville<br />Slouching Toward Bethlehem--Joan Didion<br />Gerhard Richter's Overpainted Photographs--Gerhard Richter<br /><br />The store Jay is at is nothing short of an emporium. It's hard to know where to start or end because so much good stuff fills the <a href="http://www.magersandquinn.com/">place</a>.<br /><br />Jay is one member of a staff that is friendly and helpful and will watch your 4 year-old terrorize the joint(thanks Aaron) as mine did during a wonderful event with John Vaillant.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-5218461624646878084?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-62116297392375825982011-09-23T09:24:00.002-05:002011-09-23T09:28:58.133-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Paul Ingram: Prairie Lights. Iowa City, IA. 52240</span><br /><br />Gunther Grass, The Tin Drum<br />Robertson Davies, The Deptford Trilogy<br />Russell Hoban, Riddley Walker<br />G. B. Edwards, Book of Ebeneezer LePage<br />William Maxwell, Time Will Darken it.<br />William Maxwell, So Long, See You Tomorrow<br />Willa Cather, My Antonia<br />Julie Hecht, Do the Windows Open.<br />Harriet Doerr, Stones for Ibarra<br />Rilla Askew, The Mercy Seat<br />Sebastian Barry, Long Long Way<br />Willaim Trevor, The Story of Lucy Gault<br />Charles Portis, Masters of Atlantis<br />Charles Portis, True Grit<br />Eudora Welty, Collected Stories<br />Carson McCullers, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter<br />Walker Percy, The Moviegoer<br />Vilhjalmer Moberg, The Emigrants<br />Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn<br />Jim Crace, A Gift of Stones<br />Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping<br />Marilynne Robinson, Home<br />Joseph Skibell, Blessing on the Moon<br />Ed Carey, Observatory Mansions<br />Jane Hamilton, When Madeline Was Young<br />Herman Mellville, Moby Dick<br />Charles Dickens, Pickwick Papers<br />James Agee, A Death in the Family<br />George V. Higgins The Friends of Eddie Coyle<br />Kent Haruf, The Tie That Binds<br />William Faulkner, The Unvanquished<br />William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom<br />Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale<br />Harriet Doerr, Stones for Ibarra<br />Annie Dillard The Living<br />Barbara Gowdy, White Bone<br />Wayne Johnston, The Colony of Unrequited Dreams<br />Nelson Algren, The Man With the Golden Arm<br />George Orwell, 1984<br />Redmond O'Hanlon, Into the Heart of Borneo<br />Colson Whitehead, The Intuitionist<br />Rose Tremain, Music and Silence<br />Michele de Kretzer, The Hamilton Case<br />John Steffler, The Afterlife of George Cartwright<br />Anne Michaels, Fugitive Pieces<br />Jane Gardam, Old Filth<br />Richard B. Wright, Clara Callan<br />Karen Joy Fowler, Sarah Canary<br />Aryeh Lev Stollman, The Far Euphrates<br />Colm Toibin, The Blackwater Lightship<br /> <br />Paul is a book-guzzling tornado of a hand-selling book man. Check out the brief youtube videos of his live shelftalkers. You can access those and lot more of Paul's picks via the <a href="http://www.prairielights.com/pauls-corner">website</a><br /><br />He pointed me towards Castle Freeman Jr. whose little novels are Maine gothic goodness.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-6211629739237582598?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-79320653198152579422011-09-22T12:43:00.004-05:002011-09-22T12:57:10.395-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Tom Campbell: The Regulator Bookshop. Durham, NC. 27705</span><br /><br />Non-Fiction<br />--Dispatches by Michael Herr<br />--Arabian Sands by Wilfred Thesiger<br />--A Time of Gifts: On Foot to Constantinople: From the Hook of Holland to the Middle Danube by Patrick Leigh Fermor<br />--Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell<br />--The Glory of Their Times: The Story of the Early Days of Baseball Told by the Men Who Played It by Lawrence S. Ritter<br />--Bottom of the 33rd: Hope, Redemption, and Baseball's Longest Game by Dan Barry<br />--The Heart of Understanding by Thich Nhat Hanh<br />--Last Train to Memphis; The Rise of Elvis Presley by Peter Guralnick<br />--Trawler: A Journey Through the North Atlantic by Redmond O’Hanlon<br />--Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt<br />--Up in the Old Hotel by Joseph Mitchell<br />--Oak: The Frame of Civilization by William Bryant Logan<br />--At Day's Close: Night in Times Past by A. Roger Ekirch<br />--Eating the Sun: How Plants Power the Planet by Oliver Morton<br />--On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee<br />--Ethel and Ernest: A True Story by Raymond Briggs<br />--Not Your Usual Founding Father: Selected Readings from Benjamin Franklin<br />--Citizens of London: The Americans Who Stood with Britain in Its Darkest, Finest Hour by Lynne Olson<br />--The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen<br /><br />Fiction<br />--Catch 22 by Joseph Heller<br />--The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald<br />--A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway<br />--Little, Big by John Crowley<br />--Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese<br />--Aubrey/Maturin novels by Patrick O’Brian<br />--Island: The Complete Stories by Alistair MacLeod <br />--If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor<br />--Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez<br />--The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett<br />--The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead<br />--Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem<br />--Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks<br />--Possession by A.S. Byatt<br />--The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon<br />--The Lay of the Land by Richard Ford<br />--Any Human Heart by William Boyd<br />--Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie<br />--A Sport and a Pastime by James Salter<br />--Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann<br />--Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories by Arthur Conan Doyle<br />--The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein<br />--War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy<br />--The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler<br />--The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint by Brady Udall<br />--Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier<br />--Morality Play by Barry Unsworth<br />--Last Orders by Graham Swift<br />--The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall<br />--Charming Billy by Alice McDermott<br />--The Death of the Fox by George Garrett<br /><br />When book blogs were just little puppies The Regulator was the very first one I had bookmarked. It continues to be a thoughtful, informative and provocative read.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-7932065319815257942?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-332926813499965782011-09-21T10:00:00.002-05:002011-09-21T10:22:45.525-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Paul Yamazaki: City Lights Books. San Francisco, CA. 94133</span><br /><br />100 YEARS OF SOLITUDE-gabriel garcia-marquez <br />A SECRET LOCATION ON THE LOWER EAST SIDE-steve clay <br />AIME CESAIRE: THE COLLECTED POETRY-aime cesaire <br />ARCADES PROJECT-walter benjamin <br />ARK OF BONES-henry dumas <br />AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X-malcolm x <br />BATTLE CRY OF FREEDOM-james mcpherson <br />BELOW THE LINE- sara chin <br />BETWEEN COVERS-john tebbel <br />BLACK JACOBINS-clr james <br />BLACK MUSIC-leroi jones (amiri) <br />BLUES PEOPLE-leroi jones (amiri) <br />BROTHERS KARAMAZOV-fydor dostoevsky <br />CITY OF QUARTZ-mike davis <br />COMPLETE POEMS OF KENNETH REXROTH-kenneth rexroth <br />COMPLETE WORKS OF ISAAC BABEL-isaac babel <br />CONEY ISLAND OF THE MIND-lawrence ferlinghetti <br />DOGEATERS-jessica hagedorn <br />FACING WEST: metaphysics of indian hating-richard drinnon <br />FLASH OF THE SPIRIT-robert farris thompson <br />FOUR LIVES IN THE BEBOP BUSINESS-ab spellman <br />From A Broken Bottle Traces of Perfume Still Emanate-nathaniel mackey <br />GIANT TALK-quincy troupe <br />GOD'S BIT OF WOOD-ousame sembene <br />GOD'S CHINESE SON: taiping heavenly kingdom-jonathan d spence <br />HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH WORKING CLASS-ep thompson <br />HOWL-allen ginsberg <br />I HOTEL-karen tei yamashita <br />KNOWN WORLD-edward p jones <br />LES MISERABLES-victor hugo <br />MALCOLM X-manning marable <br />MAN WITHOUT QUALITIES-robert musil <br />MANY HEADED HYDRA-marcus-peter rediker-linebaugh <br />MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN-salman rushdie <br />MOBY DICK-herman melville <br />MUMBO JUMBO-ishmael reed <br />MY LIFE IN THE BUSH OF GHOSTS-amos tutuola <br />NO NO BOY-john okada <br />ORIENTALISM-edward said <br />RECONSTRURCTION-eric foner <br />RECYCLOPEDIA-harryette mullen <br />RIVER OF SHADOWS-rebecca solnit <br />SALT EATERS-toni cade bambara <br />SOLITUDES CROWED WITH LONLINESS-bob kaufman <br />THE LONG GOODBYE-raymond chandler <br />THELONIUS MONK-robin kelly <br />ULYSSES-james joyce <br />UNDERWORLD-don delillo <br />WAR & PEACE-leo tolstoy <br />WIND IN THE WILLOWS-kenneth grahame<br /><br />Is there a more true mecca of American books than this <a href="http://www.citylights.com/">one</a>? I was lucky enough to once have Mr. Ferlinghetti at the register while I shopped there. Paul Yamazaki has been the chief buyer since 1984 and has worked at City Lights for a decade longer. This might embarrass him, but it's true to note that his name is often spoken in a whisper as a sign of respect by other booksellers.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-33292681349996578?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-10574115091458458472011-09-20T07:27:00.007-05:002011-09-21T10:00:46.998-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Stacie M. Williams: Boswell Book Company. Milwaukee, WI. 53211</span><br /><br />Cat's Eye-Margaret Atwood<br />I Hate to See That Evening Sun go Down-William Gay<br />Arturo's Island-Elsa Morante<br />Nine Parts of Desire-Geraldine Brooks<br />The Best Day The Worst Day-Donald Hall<br />Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy-Douglas Adams<br />Watership Down- Richard Adams<br />Willful Creatures- Aimee Bender<br />Things That Fall From the Sky- Kevin Brockmeier<br />Selected Poems: 1945-2005-Robert Creeley<br />The Art of Living-Epictetus<br />Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness-William Styron<br />Ghosts of Wyoming-Alyson Hagy<br />Out Stealing Horses-Per Petterson<br />The Tsar's Dwarf-Peter Fogtdal<br />Outer Dark-Cormac McCarthy<br />Smonk-Tom Franklin<br />Tales of a Female Nomad- Rita Golden Gelman<br />Deer Hunting with Jesus-Joe Bageant<br />Five Skies-Ron Carlson<br />Serena-Ron Rash<br />Lipstick Jihad-Azadeh Moaveni<br />Don't Sleep There are Snakes-Daniel Everett<br />Canine Body Language-Brenda Aloff<br />Pack of Two-Caroline Knapp<br />Coal Black Horse-Robert Olmstead<br />The Yacoubian Building-Alaa Al Aswany<br />The Attack-Yasmina Khadra<br />Blue Latitudes-Tony Horowitz<br />How Fiction Works-James Wood<br />Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna st. Vincent Millay-Nancy Milford<br />Brothel: Mustang Ranch and its Women-Alexa Albert<br />Rapture of Canaan-Sheri Reynolds<br />Daughters of the North-Sarah Hall<br />Wake Up Sir- Jonathan Ames<br />Dogs of Babel-Carolyn Parkhurst<br />The Killer Inside Me-Jim Thompson<br />Under the Banner of Heaven-Jon Krakauer<br />The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove-Christopher Moore<br />When I was Mortal-Javier Marias<br />Senselessness-Horacio Castellanos Moya<br />Mariette in Ecstasy-Ron Hansen<br />When Things Fall Apart-Pema Chodron<br />A Passage to India-E.M. Forster<br />The Awakening-Kate Chopin<br />Mystery & Manners: Occasional Prose-Flannery O'Connor<br />Arcadia- Tom Stoppard<br />Numbers in the Dark-Italo Calvino<br />Collected Letters-Elizabeth Bishop, Flannery O'Connor, T.S. Eliot, Yeats, Keats, Welty, Hemingway, Fitzgerald pretty much anyone<br /><br />We let Stacie cheat a little at the end with the letters because it was so funny and indicative of the problem many of us faced. 50 just isn't that many. Milwaukee has long been a great book, and art in general, town and its been fun to see the several stores rise from the ashes of the Harry W. Schwartz stores. <a href="http://boswell.indiebound.com/">Boswell</a> is one and from there you can jump to Daniel Goldin's blog or the bookseller blog.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-1057411509145845847?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-84623613066419984962011-09-19T09:05:00.004-05:002011-09-19T09:44:34.317-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Kelly von Plonski: Subterranean Books. St. Louis, MO. 63130</span><br /><br /><br />Firmin by Sam Savage<br />Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall<br />Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri<br />Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon<br />The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall<br />A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry<br />The Razors' Edge by W. Somerset Maugham<br />Kokoro by Soseki<br />Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami<br />The Getaway by Jim Thompson<br />Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link<br />On Beauty by Zadie Smith<br />Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout<br />The Delivery Man by Joe McGinniss, Jr<br />Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl<br />No God But God by Reza Aslan<br />Brighton Rock by Graham Greene<br />Voluntary Madness by Nora Vincent<br />Finding Nouf  by Zoe Ferraris<br />City of Thieves by David Benioff<br />I Love You, Beth Cooper by Larry Doyle<br />Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride<br />Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan<br />Arsonist's Guide to Homes in New England by Brock Clarke<br />2666 by Roberto Bolano<br />Home & Gilead by Marilyn Robinson<br />Leningrad: State of Siege by Michael Jones<br />Selected Letters of TS Spivet by Reif LArsson<br />The Children's Book by AS Byatt<br />This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper<br />New York Stories by Paul Auster<br />The Death Instinct by Jed Rubenfeld<br />Room by Emma Donohue<br />The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde<br />Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead by Sara Gran<br />Kids:<br />Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen<br />Time For Bed by Mem Fox<br />Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney<br />The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper<br />The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis<br />Sergio Makes a Splash by Edel Rodriguez<br />Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site by Tom Lichtenheld<br />Broken Glass Park by Alina Bronsky<br />The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas<br />A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore<br />The Surrendered by Change- Rae Lee<br />Nine Stories by JD Salinger<br />Wingshooters by Nina Revoyr<br />Stones Fall by Iain Pears<br /><br />Abraham and Associates rep John Mesjak(and <a href="http://www.my3books.com/my3booksblog/category/john-mesjak">my3books</a> guy) gave me the heads up to talk to someone at <a href="http://store.subbooks.com/">Subterranean</a> which has as inventive a series of events as anyone around. Flyover land or not.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-8462361306641998496?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-23185102212071103732011-09-18T03:01:00.002-05:002011-09-18T03:43:23.161-05:00Before this space became the home of Indie Booksellers Top 50 lists it was something else. What, exactly, I am not sure. A soapbox? A virtual venting space? A what? It's hard to even remember--but like everything in the digital world, it is all there for anyone to take a peek at.<br /><br />I've had a few customers ask for something other than lists so here are some of my ideas again. And, I should note(again), that these are simply my simple thoughts and meanderings and that they do not represent Micawber's entire staff.<br /><br />I'll begin with a question: what do I/we owe to self-published authors? Almost every day, and sometimes multiple times in a given day, I get a call/e-mail/in-store visit from someone who has published their own work. They most often start with a line of "I am a local artist..." Anyone who truly shops at the store and is someone we actually know by face and name gets a free pass. We always are willing and happy to sell those books. Like many other stores we have some real success stories amongst those kinds of books. In the past few years we've sold 100+ of a few and just had an event three nights ago when we sold 48 copies of a poetry book done locally.<br /><br />But I'm thinking about the larger issue. The same technology that has introduced e-readers has also enabled either individuals or small companies to print books at a reasonable price. The world of self-publishing is a sort of DYI adventure that I admire in principle. Yet I also see the other side of the coin--not every book works for us in terms of content, style, price, etc.<br /><br />Lately I have begun to wonder about what I owe to these people/books. Is every e-mail deserving of a response? My quick answer is no. Is every package containing a book worth an answer? No, again, I think. Should a local author get an audience to tell me about his/her book simply by stopping by the store? Another negative is my immediate response--after having dealt with hundreds of these types of requests.<br /><br />Here are a few simple rules that would probably apply to most stores: call in advance to set up an appointment. Do not drop-in and expect time with an owner/buyer. If you mail a copy of your book do not expect a store to pay return postage. Ask once about a store hosting an event. Do not ask a question when the only possible answer you want is yes. Do not stress your local artist angle unless you know or shop at the store.<br /><br />I deal with authors on the regular who begin their spiel with total numbers of sales via Amazon and the very simple response is to tell them to contact Amazon.com regarding an event.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-2318510221207110373?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-31307549596223337612011-09-16T11:00:00.002-05:002011-09-16T11:14:54.362-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Joseph J. DeSalvo: Faulkner House Books. New Orleans, LA. 70119</span><br />The Odyssey and the Iliad Homer<br />The Aeneid Virgil<br />Don Quixote Cervantes<br />Life of Samuel Johnson James Boswell<br />Mansfield Park Jane Austen <br />Jane Eyre Emily Bronte<br />Wuthering Heights Charlotte Bronte<br />Middlemarch George Eliot<br />Nostromo Joseph Conrad<br />Secret Agent Joseph Conrad<br />Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad<br />Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert<br />The Red and the Black Stendahl<br />Pere Goriot Honore Balzac<br />War and Peace Leo Tolstoy<br />Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy<br />Death of Ivan Ilyich Leo Tolstoy<br />The Brothers Karamazov Fyodor Dostoyevsky<br />Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoyevsky<br />Dead Souls Nikolai Gogol<br />Short Stories Anton Chekhov<br />Moby Dick Herman Melville<br />The Leopard Giuseppe Lampedusa<br />The Long Ships Frans G. Bengtsson<br />Radetzky's March Joseph Roth<br />Zorba the Greek Nikos Kazantzakis<br />Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain<br />Henderson the Rain King Saul Bellow<br />Herzog Saul Bellow<br />Light in August William Faulkner<br />Absalom Absalom William Faulkner<br />The Sound and the Fury William Faulkner<br />Invisible Man Ralph Ellison<br />The Moviegoer Walker Percy<br />Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole<br />Old Man and the Sea Ernest Hemingway<br />Short Stories Hemingway<br />The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald<br />Crossing To Safety Wallace Stegner<br />History Elsa Morante<br />The Balkan Trilogy Olivia Manning<br />Rabbit Angstrom John Updike<br />Life and Fate Vasily Grossman<br />Lolita Vladimir Nabokov<br />Death Comes For the Archbishop Willa Cather <br />The Good Soldier Ford Maddox Ford<br />Sophie's Choice William Styron<br />Out of Africa Isak Dinesen<br />All the King's Men Robert Penn Warren<br />The Optimist's Daughter Eudora Welty<br /><br /><a href="http://www.faulknerhouse.net/">Faulkner House</a> is owned by Mr. DeSalvo who was kind enough to mail me his list written in script so beautiful that I will be scanning it soon for all to see. I am also now convinced that his store, with its address at 624 Pirate's Alley, has the coolest address of any bookstore in the world.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-3130754959622333761?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-72514282009061330832011-09-15T07:58:00.002-05:002011-09-15T08:03:20.212-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Emma Straub: BookCourt. Brooklyn, NY. 11201.</span><br />1. Middlemarch, George Eliot<br />2. Stoner, John Williams<br />3. Emma, Jane Austen<br />4. The Secret History, Donna Tartt<br />5. A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan<br />6. Martin Dressler, Stephen Millhauser<br />7. Bel Canto, Ann Patchett<br />8. Like Life, Lorrie Moore<br />9. Lunch Poems, Frank O'Hara<br />10. The Great Man, Kate Christensen<br />11. Little Children, Tom Perrotta<br />12. The Wife, Meg Wolitzer<br />13. Unaccustomed Earth, Jhumpa Lahiri<br />14. Ideas of Heaven, Joan Silber<br />15. Bad Marie, Marcy Dermansky<br />16. Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro<br />17. Everything Matters!, Ron Currie Jr.<br />18. Skippy Dies, Paul Murray<br />19. Old School, Tobias Wolff<br />20. Chocolates for Breakfast, Pamela Moore<br />21. Cost of Living, Mavis Gallant<br />22. Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte<br />23. Random Family, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc<br />24. I Remember, Joe Brainard<br />25. Memento Mori, Muriel Spark<br />26, Magic for Beginners, Kelly Link<br />27. New Addresses, Kenneth Koch<br />28. A Movable Feast, Ernest Hemingway<br />29. Liars and Saints, Maile Meloy<br />30. Crossing to Safety, Wallace Stegner<br />31. Under the Banner of Heaven, Jon Krakauer<br />32. Mystery, Peter Straub<br />33. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov<br />34. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, David Sedaris<br />35. The Good Solider, Ford Madox Ford<br />36. True History of the Kelly Gang, Peter Carey<br />37. Where I'm Calling From, Raymond Carver<br />38. In Cold Blood, Truman Capote<br />39. You Remind Me of Me, Dan Chaon<br />40. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Michael Chabon<br />41. Rebecca, Daphne DuMaurier<br />42. The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson<br />43. The Stories (So Far) of Deborah Eisenberg<br />44. George and Martha, James Marshall<br />45. The Portrait of a Lady, Henry James<br />46. The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton<br />47. Down the Street, Lynda Barry<br />48. Entertaining is Fun, Dorothy Draper<br />49. Jump Book, Phillipe Halsman<br />50. The Master, Colm Toibin<br /><br />Emma is the author of a great short story collection "Other People We Married" which we sell at Micawber's. Read more about her at her<a href="http://www.emmastraub.net/"> site</a> and her store's website can be found <a href="http://www.bookcourt.org/">here</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-7251428200906133083?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-65936551373048407752011-09-14T10:04:00.001-05:002011-09-14T10:04:18.089-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Emily Pullen: Skylight Books. Los Angeles, CA. 90027.</span><br /><br />As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner<br />White Noise by Don DeLillo<br />Mopus by Oisin Curran<br />Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell<br />Matilda by Roald Dahl<br />The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot<br />The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee<br />Let's Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste by Carl Wilson<br />The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall<br />Well by Matthew McIntosh<br />Hotel World by Ali Smith<br />Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson<br />Bluets by Maggie Nelson<br />Nox by Anne Carson<br />Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli<br />Mother, Come Home by Paul Hornschemeier<br />Essex County by Jeff Lemire<br />Mirrors by Eduardo Galeano<br />The Correspondence Artist by Barbara Browning<br />Some Things That Meant the World To Me by Joshua Mohr<br />The Position by Meg Wolitzer<br />The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein<br />Everything Is Its Own Reward by Paul Madonna<br />Refuge by Terry Tempest Williams<br />It's Useful to Have a Duck by ISOL<br />Color: A Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finlay<br />Fun Home by Alison Bechdel<br />The Reapers Are the Angels by Alden Bell<br />AM/PM by Amelia Gray<br />I, The Divine by Rabih Alameddine<br />Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace<br />Log of the S.S. the Mrs. Unguentine by Stanley Crawford<br />The Slow Fix by Ivan E. Coyote<br />The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet by Reif Larson<br />Man's Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl<br />Little Brother by Cory Doctorow<br />Narration: Four Lectures by Gertrude Stein<br />The Jolly Postman by Janet Ahlberg<br />Signs and Relics by Sylvia Plachy<br />Detroit Disassembled by Andrew Moore<br />Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman<br />Odysseus in America by Jonathan Shay<br />A New Literary History of America by Greil Marcus (editor)<br />Zoom by Istvan Banyai<br />The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson<br />The Ultimate Alphabet by Mike Wilks<br />The Design of Dissent by Milton Glaser<br />The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin<br />Kindred by Octavia Butler<br />Flapper by Joshua Zeitz<br /><br />I've long admired Emily's book selections choosing from the best of the mainstream and introducing me to lots of gems I wouldn't have otherwise found. More of her(and other Skylight booksellers) picks can be found on their <a href="http://www.skylightbooks.com/storepicks/284557">site</a>--which comes complete with cool illustrations.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-6593655137304840775?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-62534998720808168812011-09-13T07:34:00.002-05:002011-09-13T07:44:09.677-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Matt Lage: Iowa Book and Co. Iowa City, IA. 52244</span><br /><br /><br />Lorrie Moore, The Collected Stories (UK edition)<br />John Cheever, The Stories of John Cheever<br />Alice McDermott, Charming Billy<br />Gore Vidal, United States: Collected Essays<br />Gore Vidal, Palimpsest: A Memoir<br />Frank O'Connor, Collected Stories<br />William Trevor, Collected Stories (Boxed, UK)<br />Alice Munro, Selected Stories<br />Mavis Gallant, The Collected Stories<br />Jeffrey Eugenides, The Virgin Suicides<br />Alan Hollinghurst, The Swimming Pool Library<br />Alan Hollinghurst, The Stranger's Child<br />Ann Beattie, The New Yorker Stories<br />David Leavitt, Collected Stories<br />Anthony Burgess, Earthly Powers<br />Edmund White, The Farewell Symphony<br />John le Carre, The Quest for Karla (Knopf omnibus of Tinker, Tailor<br />Soldier, Spy; The Honorourable Schoolboy, Smiley's People)<br />Annie Proulx, Close Range: Wyoming Stories<br />The Practical Heart by Allan Gurganus<br />The Short History of a Prince by Jane Hamilton<br />Collected Stories by Amy Hempel<br />The Known World by Edward P.Jones<br />Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro<br />The Ghosts of Belfast by Stuart Neville<br />Underworld by Don Delillo<br />Best of P.G. Wodehouse (Everyman’s Library)<br />Atonement by Ian McEwan<br />No Great Mischief by Alistair Macleod<br />Black Swan Green by David Mitchell<br />Collected Stories by Wright Morris<br />Regeneration Trilogy by Pat Barker (UK ed.)<br />Untouchable by John Banville<br />The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty by Sebastian Barry<br />The Half You Didn’t Know: Selected Stories by Peter Cameron (Plume paper)<br />Any Human Heart by William Boyd<br />The Early Stories: 1953-1975 by John Updike<br />Complete Stories by Evelyn Waugh (Everyman Library)<br />The Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston<br />At Swim, Two Boys by Jamie O’Neill<br />The Francoeur Trilogy by David Plante (Dutton Obelisk paper)<br />The Collected Stories by J. F. Powers (NYRB paper)<br />A Cab at the Door & Midnight Oil by V.S. Pritchett (Modern Library)<br />Untold Stories by Alan Bennett<br />Last Orders by Graham Swift<br />White Teeth by Zadie Smith<br />Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout<br />The Story of a Marriage by Andrew Sean Greer<br />The Yiddish Policeman’s Union by Michael Chabon<br />The Ripley Novels by Patricia Highsmith (Everyman’s Library)<br />A Star Called Henry by Roddy Doyle<br /><br />This is one of the many cases where I had never met or spoken to the contributor. I had heard, many times, of his name and fine book taste. Prairie Lights is the store everyone talks about in Iowa(and we'll hear from them in a few days) but they ain't the only<br />game in town. Big thanks go to Steve Horwitz--our Abraham&Associates rep--for always pestering me about getting in touch with Matt.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-6253499872080816881?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-38131477092022276462011-09-12T07:06:00.003-05:002011-09-12T07:14:03.762-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Toby Cox: Three LIves&Company. New York, NY. 10014</span><br /><br />WILDERNESS TIPS: STORIES by Margaret Atwood<br />ANOTHER COUNTRY by James Baldwin<br />THE FEAST OF LOVE by Charles Baxter<br />2666 by Roberto Bolano<br />MYSTERY RIDE by Robert Boswell<br />THE CHILDREN'S BOOK by A. S. Byatt<br />THE BEANS OF EGYPT, MAINE by Carolyn Chute<br />DISGRACE by J.M. Coetzee<br />HERO by Frederick G. Dillen<br />THE ROYAL PHYSICIAN'S VISIT by Per Olov Enquist<br />LOVE MEDICINE by Louise Erdrich<br />THE WAITRESS WAS NEW by Dominique Fabre<br />THE SOUND AND THE FURY by William Faulkner<br />THEN WE CAME TO THE END by Joshua Ferris<br />THE GOOD DOCTOR by Damon Galgut<br />MISTER SANDMAN by Barbara Gowdy<br />LIFE AND FATE by Vasily Grossman<br />THE DREAM LIFE OF SUKHANOV by Olga Grushin<br />THE GREAT FIRE by Shirley Hazzard<br />BALCONY OF EUROPE by Aidan Higgins<br />THE KNOWN WORLD by Edward P. Jones<br />SNOW COUNTRY by Yasunari Kawabata<br />WALK THE BLUE FIELDS: STORIES by Claire Keegan<br />THE CONQUEROR by Jan Kjaerstad<br />A THOUSAND YEARS OF GOOD PRAYERS: STORIES by Yiyun Li<br />THE CHATEAU by William Maxwell<br />BY THE LAKE by John McGahern<br />CLOUD ATLAS by David Mitchell<br />THE ICE STORM by Rick Moody<br />IN OTHER ROOMS OTHER WONDERS: STORIES by Daniyal Mueenuddin<br />THE DISCOVERY OF HEAVEN by Harry Mulisch<br />THE WIND-UP BIRD CHRONICLE by Haruki Murakami<br />THE THINGS THEY CARRIED by Tim O'Brien<br />SNOW ANGELS by Stewart O'Nan<br />DIVISADERO by Michael Ondaatje<br />THE ECHO MAKER by Richard Powers<br />THE SHIPPING NEWS by Annie Proulx<br />THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS by Arundhati Roy<br />LAST NIGHT: STORIES by James Salter<br />LIGHT YEARS by James Salter<br />CIVILWARLAND IN BAD DECLINE: STORIES by George Saunders<br />LUCKY US by Joan Silber<br />SHADOWS ON THE HUDSON by Isaac Bashevis Singer<br />CROSSING TO SAFETY by Wallace Stegner<br />THE GRAPES OF WRATH by John Steinbeck<br />PEREIRA DECLARES by Antonio Tabucchi<br />TRIOMF by Marlene van Niekerk<br />SEPARATE CHECKS by Marianne Wiggins<br />CLOUDSTREET by Tim Winton<br />THIS BOY'S LIFE by Tobias Wolff<br /><br /><a href="http://threelives.com/">Here</a> is their website which is purely informational. Which is fine because this store's charm and power is its physical space. I might upset some people by saying this, including co-workers, but Three Lives is pound for pound, inch by inch, my favorite bookstore in the United States. The stock selection is suoerb and a lot of that is due to Toby.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-3813147709202227646?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-37938273474221485162011-09-09T09:14:00.003-05:002011-09-09T09:56:20.953-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Liberty Hardy: RiverRun Bookstore. Portsmouth, NH. 03801</span><br /><br />THE PLAGUE DOGS by Richard Adams<br />WINTERGIRLS by Laurie Halse Anderson<br />CAT'S EYE by Margaret Atwood<br />THE WASP FACTORY by Iain Banks<br />THE VAULTS by Toby Ball<br />A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE DEAD by Kevin Brockmeier<br />IN COLD BLOOD by Truman Capote<br />CLOSE TO SHORE by Michael Capuzzo<br />ONE BLOODY THING AFTER ANOTHER by Joey Comeau<br />FIFTH BUSINESS by Robertson Davies<br />BAD MARIE by Marcy Dermansky<br />GEEK LOVE by Katherine Dunn<br />ZEROVILLE by Steve Erickson<br />THE SORROWS OF YOUNG WERTHER by Goethe<br />THE LOST CITY OF Z by David Grann<br />CLAIRE DEWITT AND THE CITY OF THE DEAD by Sara Gran<br />THE FOREVER WAR by Joe Haldeman<br />THE GONE-AWAY WORLD by Nick Harkaway<br />UNION ATLANTIC by Adam Haslett<br />WINTER'S TALE by Mark Helprin<br />RAT GIRL by Kristen Hersh<br />HEART-SHAPED BOX by Joe Hill<br />A HIGH WIND IN JAMAICA by Richard Hughes<br />WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE CASTLE by Shirley Jackson<br />THE KNOWN WORLD by Edward P. Jones<br />MISTER PIP by Lloyd Jones<br />THE DUST OF 100 DOGS by A.S. King<br />FATHER OF THE RAIN by Lily King<br />THE ORANGE EATS CREEPS by Grace Krilanovich<br />DISQUIET by Julia Leigh<br />AS SHE CLIMBED ACROSS THE TABLE by Jonathan Lethem<br />LET THE GREAT WORLD SPIN by Colum McCann<br />BLOOD MERIDIAN by Cormac McCarthy<br />LONESOME DOVE by Larry McMurtry<br />CLOUD ATLAS by David Mitchell<br />SKIPPY DIES by Paul Murray<br />A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND by Flannery O'Connor<br />BEL CANTO by Ann Patchett<br />MY NAME IS ASHER LEV by Chaim Potok<br />JAMESTOWN by Matthew Sharpe<br />IN HARM'S WAY by Doug Stanton<br />CANNERY ROW by John Steinbeck<br />ANATHEM by Neal Stephenson<br />PERFUME by Patrick Suskind<br />THE SECRET HISTORY by Donna Tartt<br />THE TIGER by John Vaillant<br />ZAZEN by Vanessa Veselka<br />SLAPSTICK by Kurt Vonnegut<br />THE LITTLE STRANGER by Sarah Waters<br />THE MONSTRUMOLOGIST by Rick Yancey<br /><br />After a little bit of phone-tag Liberty surprised me by getting her list to me the same day we spoke. Her enthusiam for the books she loves is really infectious. I read Zazen by Veselka from Red Lemonade and am now indebted to her for that tip. She is also helping this project ricochet around the internet universe via Twitter and for that I thank her immensely. RiverRun's site is <a href="http://www.riverrunbookstore.com/">here</a>. I also should say that I first came to know about her via Algonquin's Booksellers Rock series which is one of many great things they feature on their <a href="http://www.algonquinbooksblog.com/">blog</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-3793827347422148516?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-36521678376989386252011-09-08T07:34:00.002-05:002011-09-08T07:38:49.340-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Libby Cowles: Maria's Bookshop. Durango, CO. 81301</span><br /><br />Claiming Ground, Laura Bell<br />Lonely Polygamist, Brady Udall<br />Women’s Ways of Knowing, Mary Belenkey et al<br />In a Different Voice, Carol Gilligan<br />Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger<br />Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, Sherman Alexie<br />Gate at the Stairs, Lorrie Moore<br />Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers<br />Owl Moon, Jane Yolen<br />Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl<br />How to Cook Everything, Mark Bittman<br />A People’s History of the United States, Howard Zinn<br />America America, Ethan Canin<br />Bone People, Keri Hulme<br />Special Topics in Calamity Physics, Marisha Pessl<br />The Confessions of Max Tivoli, Andrew Sean Greer<br />The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison<br />Bless Me, Ultima, Rudolfo Anaya<br />Revolutionary Road, Richard Yates<br />Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster<br />Anthropology of an American Girl, Hilary Thayer Hamann<br />One Hundred Names for Love, Diane Ackerman<br />Operating Instructions, Anne Lamott<br />Dreaming in Cuban, Cristina Garcia<br />How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, Julia Alvarez<br />Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston<br />The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman<br />Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader, Anne Fadiman<br />Howl, Allen Ginsberg<br />Walden, Henry David Thoreau<br />Woodswoman, Anne LaBastille<br />Harriet the Spy, Louise Fitzhugh<br />My Side of the Mountain, Jean Craighead George<br />D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths, Ingri and Edgar D'Aulaire<br />Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer<br />Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Paolo Freire<br />The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald<br />Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck<br />Emperors Children, Claire Messud<br />Gnomes, Will Huygen<br />Yellowcake, Ann Cummins<br />Last Child in the Woods, Richard Louv<br />Reviving Ophelia, Mary Pipher<br />Writing Down the Bones, Natalie Goldberg<br />The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood<br />A Natural History of Love, Diane Ackerman<br />The Beauty Myth, Naomi Wolf<br />A Separate Peace, John Knowles<br />Dream Work, Mary Oliver<br />Dharma Bums, Jack Kerouac<br /><br />People think of Denver or Boulder or Fort Collins when it comes to cool Colorado living but Maria's certainly makes Durango seem like a pretty good option. Their <a href="http://www.mariasbookshop.com/">website </a>showcases their passion for books pretty well and under the Maria's Favorites tab you can access all their staff picks and other fun stuff.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-3652167837698938625?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-20018040629411763552011-09-07T09:02:00.002-05:002011-09-07T09:06:18.435-05:00This iconic store has been dealing books in Cambridge Mass. since 1932. Megan Sullivan, their head buyer, was kind enough to share the Top 50 from a staff list that they compiled in 2009. Their virtual home is<a href="http://www.harvard.com/"> here</a> You can access the rest of their Top 100 from there.<br /><br />Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë<br />Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen<br />Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut<br />One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez<br />The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami<br />To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf<br />Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov<br />The Lord of the Rings (series) by J.R.R. Tolkien<br />Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison<br />Beloved by Toni Morrison<br />Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges<br />The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri<br />The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood<br />The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon<br />Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf<br />The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov<br />Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll<br />Middlemarch by George Eliot<br />A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle<br />A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving<br />Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion<br />If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino<br />To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee<br />Great Expectations by Charles Dickens<br />Harry Potter (series) by J.K. Rowling<br />Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy<br />Dubliners by James Joyce<br />Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie<br />Sea of Poppies Amitav Ghosh<br />White Noise by Don DeLillo<br />Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder<br />Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky<br />Catch 22 by Joseph Heller<br />His Dark Materials (series) by Philip Pullman<br />The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers<br />Little Women by Louisa May Alcott<br />The Earthsea Cycle (series) by Ursula LeGuin<br />A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway<br />Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut<br />The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams<br />The Histories by Herodotus<br />The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner<br />Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami<br />The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald<br />Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston<br />The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster<br />Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson<br />Dealing with Dragons by Patricia Wrede<br />The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath<br />Cannery Row by John Steinbeck<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-2001804062941176355?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-50576867285001196332011-09-06T00:31:00.003-05:002011-09-06T00:40:48.667-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Michael Boggs: Carmichael'sBookstore. Louisville, KY. 40204/40206</span><br /><br />This is Louisville's oldest indie and you can see more about them<a href="http://www.carmichaelsbookstore.com/"> here</a><br /><br />Without criteria, I had to make up my own. 1. Classics – If somebody wants to read Gatsby or Grapes of Wrath or Treasure Island, they aren’t going to here about it from me first. 2. There are tons of contemporary books that I am sure others would love, but I disliked. Cf. Infinite Jest or Cloud Atlas (maybe I’m too old). So I have to have really liked it to sell it 3. You have to have to kind of read a customer’s sense of themselves as readers and have all manner of stuff in you bag to recommend. 4. Handselling is all about being democratic and believing you can upgrade a romance reader to The Secret History or Shadow of the Wind or even Winter’s Tale, or a Mickey Spillane fan to Little Drummer Girl or Chinaman’s Chance. <br /><br /><br />A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole<br />A Winter’s Tale – Mark Halprin<br />Any Human Heart – William Boyd<br />At Home - Bill Bryson<br />Atonement – Ian McEwan<br />Citizenship Papers – Wendell Berry<br />Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time – Mark Haddon<br />The Hours – Michael Cunningham<br />Dispatches - Michael Herr<br />Into the Wild – Jon Krakauer<br />Little Bee – Chris Cleave<br />Lonesome Dove – Larry McMurtry<br />Me Talk Pretty One Day – David Sedaris<br />Paris to the Moon – Adam Gopnik<br />Path to Power – Robert Caro<br />Pilgrim at Tinker Creek – Annie Dillard<br />Rising Tide – John Barry<br />River of Doubt – Candace Millard<br />Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Zafon<br />Smiley's People - John Le Carre<br />Sophie’s World – Jostein Gardner<br />The Hair of Harold Roux – Thomas Williams<br />The Hot Zone – Richard Preston<br />The Little Drummer Girl – John Le Carre<br />The Omnivore’s Dilemma – Michael Pollan<br />The Orchid Thief – Susan Orlean<br />The Plot Against America – Philip Roth<br />The Professor & the Madman – Simon Winchester<br />The Secret History – Donna Tartt<br />The Shipping News – Annie Proulx<br />The Spies of Warsaw – Alan Furst<br />The Stone Virgin – Barry Unsworth<br />The Things They Carried - Tim O'Brien<br />The English Patient - Michael Ondaatje<br />A Walk in the Woods - Bill Bryson<br />Lives of the Monster Dogs - Kirsten Bakis<br />Way of Ignorance – Wendell Berry<br />World According to Garp - John Irving<br />The Stand-Stephen King<br />The White Album - Joan Didion<br />Dog of the South - Charles Portis<br />The Lives of a Cell - Lewis Thomas<br />Gorky Park - Martin Cruz Smith<br />Chinaman's Chance - Ross Thomas<br />Metzer's Dog - Thomas Perry<br />Neuromancer - William Gibson<br />Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson<br />Underworld - Don Delillo<br />Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat - Oliver Sachs<br />Guns of the South - Harry Turtledove<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-5057686728500119633?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-30550889023995264792011-09-02T07:36:00.004-05:002011-09-02T07:46:36.895-05:00N<span style="font-weight:bold;">eil Strandberg:Tattered Cover Book Store. Denver, C0 80202</span> <br /> <br />Fiction <br /> <br />The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway <br />Vanity Fair, Thackery <br />East of Eden, Steinbeck <br />Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck <br />Bleak House, Dickens <br />Ramayana, Valmiki (not really "fiction," as such, but one helluva a story) <br />History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, Fielding <br />Last of the Mohicans, Cooper <br />Count of Monte Cristo, Dumas <br />Three Musketeers, Dumas <br />Code of the Woosters, Wodehouse; but I really mean all things Wooster <br />Sot-Weed Factor, Barth <br />Lolita, Nabakov <br />Moby Dick; or, The Whale, Melville <br />Tin Drum, Grass <br />I, Claudius, Graves <br />Blood Meridian, McCarthy <br />White Noise, DeLillo <br />The English Patient, Ondaatje <br />Perfume, Suskind <br />True History of the Kelly Gang, Carey <br />Remains of the Day, Ishiguro <br />Things They Carried, O'Brien <br />Winter's Tale, Helprin <br />One Hundred Years of Solitude, Garcia Marquez <br />A Prayer for Owen Meany, Irving <br />Killer Angels, Shaara <br />Centaur, Updike <br /> <br />Genre <br /> <br />Gorky Park, Smith; but I really mean to say all things Arkady Renko <br />Lucifer's Hammer, Niven <br />Cryptonomicon, Stephenson <br />Snow Crash, Stephenson <br />Farewell, My Lovely, Chandler; but I really mean to say all things Chandler <br />Sun of Suns, Schroeder <br />Windup Girl, Bacigalupi <br />Hobbit, Tolkien <br />Lord of the Rings, Tolkien <br />Dune (Dune Chronicles, #1), Herbert <br /> <br />Non Fiction <br /> <br />Longitude, Sobel <br />Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science <br />With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa, Sledge <br />Son of the Morning Star: General Custer and the Battle of Little Bighorn, Connell <br />Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions, Quammen <br />Making of the Atomic Bomb, Rhodes <br />Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph, Lawrence <br />Goodbye, Darkness: A Memoir of the Pacific War, Manchester <br />Worst Journey in the World, Cherry-Garrard <br />Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia's Founding, Hughes <br />Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality, Greene <br />Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, Pollan <br /> <br /><a href="http://www.tatteredcover.com/">Here</a> is the mainpage for a store that has long been one of our strongest defenders of free speech and great books. <br /> <br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-3055088902399526479?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-28535251367223278292011-08-31T19:23:00.003-05:002011-08-31T19:55:22.676-05:00For the past three or four weeks I have been involved in what has become, quite easily, the most rewarding and fun overall experience of my bookselling career. It began with a customer asking me for ten of my Top 100 books. And oh how I wish I knew her name or how to contact her now and let her know what that not so simple question has led to. <br /> <br />Her question made me think about how my list would differ/be similar to other booksellers across this fine land. So I began to call and e-mail them not knowing what the general response would be. In summary I was shocked to hear from person after person that they were willing, and happy, to contribute. I ended each call or message with the question: "Give me one other person I should talk to." I proceeded from there. So, beginning right now, I will be posting one of the 50 lists each business day. <br /> <br />My question was to list either a Top 50 or 50 favorite books to handsell. Out of print, new, all manner of genres, etc. Everything was fair game. Some booksellers/stores placed their own restrictions and I will list them as appropriate. Also noted is the fact that most people chose to list the books alphabetically by author and not do a ranking. I've done my best to compile them as nearest as possible to the way in which they were sent to me either by e-mail or handwritten letter(bless you, Mr. Joseph DeSalvo). I will also link to the bookstore website or blog whenever possible. <br /> <br />Before I give my own list I need to say that this is not a list of lists of omission. If there is a bookseller out there that would like to join this you can contact me and I will continue this project until its very end. Being involved in this has been the highest honor possible. As of right now I have 20 lists(with a total of 1,000 books) coming from all ages and at least 17 different states. From now on I will be posting them in the order that they arrived. At the very end I will compile the titles mentioned by the most people. <br /> <br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Hans Weyandt: Micawber's Books. St. Paul, MN 55108</span> <br /> <br />A Universal History of the Destruction of Books--Fernando Baez <br />The Ninemile Wolves--Rick Bass <br />You Can't Win--Jack Black <br />Postville--Stephen G. Bloom <br />On the Yard--Malcolm Braly <br />Running After Antelope--Scott Carrier <br />My Antonia--Willa Cather <br />George and Rue--George Elliott Clarke <br />Open City--Teju Cole <br />Newjack--Ted Conover <br />The Brothers K--David James Duncan <br />Geek Love--Katherine Dunn <br />The Farther Shore--Matthew Eck <br />The Solace of Open Spaces--Gretel Ehrlich <br />Every Man Dies Alone--Hans Fallada <br />Going Blind--Mara Faulkner, OSB <br />Bury Me Standing--Isabel Fonseca <br />Hell at the Breech--Tom Franklin <br />Great Plains--Ian Frazier <br />The Last American Man--Elizabeth Gilbert <br />We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families--Philip Gourevitch <br />A Writer at War--Vasily Grossman <br />Reasons To Live--Amy Hempel <br />What The Living Do--Marie Howe <br />Seek--Denis Johnson <br />A Walker in the City--Alfred Kazin <br />Garden, Ashes--Danilo Kiš <br />Miniatures--Norah Labiner <br />The Boat--Nam Le <br />With Borges--Alberto Manguel <br />So Long, See You Tomorrow--William Maxwell <br />Letter to an Imaginary Friend--Thomas McGrath <br />The Headmaster--John McPhee <br />Up in the Old Hotel--Joseph Mitchell <br />All the Living--C.E. Morgan <br />The Things They Carried--Tim O'Brien <br />Mystery and Manners--Flannery O'Connor <br />In the Skin of a Lion--Michael Ondaatje <br />The Time of Our Singing--Richard Powers <br />Down in My Heart--William Stafford <br />Jesse James--T.J. Stiles <br />The Gangster We Are All Looking For--lé thi diem thúy <br />The Tummy Trilogy--Calvin Trillin <br />Maps of the Imagination--Peter Turchi <br />The Tiger--John Vaillant <br />The Book of Fathers--Miklós Vámos <br />A Book of Reasons--John Vernon <br />Lone Wolf--MaryAnne Vollers <br />The Essays of E.B. White--E.B. White <br />In the American Grain--William Carlos Williams <div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-2853525136722327829?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-37722114033582270792011-08-26T10:11:00.002-05:002011-08-26T10:21:42.388-05:00Or some of them. First, the backstory. About three weeks ago I had a customer ask me for 10 of my Top 100 books. Initially I thought she meant Micawber's all-time bestsellers. When I started plucking books off the shelves she straightened me out, "No, I mean your personal favorites." Well then--now we had a crazy fun task at hand. So it got me to thinking how cool it would be to compile similar lists from other indie booksellers. <br /> <br />I began to call and e-mail some of my friends from other stores and had them recommend one other bookseller and things began to domino. So I thought, why not get the Top 50 from 20 different people/stores? That would be 1,000 books with some crossover. I'm happy to say that the lists have been trickling in and it is a joy to witness. Starting next week I will be posting one of them here and via our Facebook page each day. If all goes as planned we'll have between 15-25 booksellers sharing their favorites. It will cover fifteen states(or more) and vary wildly in age. <br /> <br />This endeavor has been great fun and has put me in contact with both old bookselling friends and many new ones. <br /> <br />So, bookophiles, stay tuned.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-3772211403358227079?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-18240779226710342822011-08-13T14:58:00.003-05:002011-08-13T15:31:04.892-05:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Hw6ktGiRReE/Tkbe2g-K6gI/AAAAAAAAAQk/QPNjh0DlayU/s1600/mrwhites.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Hw6ktGiRReE/Tkbe2g-K6gI/AAAAAAAAAQk/QPNjh0DlayU/s400/mrwhites.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5640440611473123842" /></a> <br />Or, what to do when a particular title sells much better regionally than it does nation-wide? <br /> <br />When I was just a bookselling pup back in my early Hungry Mind days I was like a kid on a sugar bender. We had 45-50 employees and every day someone was telling me about a book I had to read. Same with customers. One customer was a hard-core mystery nut and he was always prodding me to set aside any ideas I had about the genre and simply read some. An early suggestion of his was Robert Clark's "Mr. White's Confession". He told me that it was a lovely and endearing and sad yet fun tale of 1930's St. Paul. And as a child and bookseller of that city it was my duty to give this book a chance. I read it and liked it and went about my careening between other recommended titles. <br /> <br />That edition of the book was not long for the world and it seemed to vanish as quickly as it appeared. Fast forward to 2008 when paging through a catalog with a sales rep I saw the, old, familiar image on the cover of Clark's novel. I was a little more excited than the rep had anticipated and I said, "We're going to sell this book like crazy." Now we move forward to 2011 and the fact that we've sold 128 copies. That's no mind-blowing number but it is beyond respectable and, I'd guess, more than most other stores in the country. <br /> <br />The book has a lot going for it in general, but specific to the Twin Cities it's an easy sell. The style of writing has been compared to Dashiel Hammett or James Crumley at their finest and even Patricia Highsmith's Ripley books. The sense of place is spot on. Readers who like the book often ask me for the next book in this series. Mr. Clark has written many books since this but has moved on to art history and other unrelated fictional works. <br /> <br />As we try to order more copies of late we've been hitting some dead spots. Ingram, one of the larger national wholesale book companies, is carrying very low stock. Last week we tried to order five copies and only received one. I need to place a call this coming week to Macmillan and see if the book is, as we fear, headed back into out of print status. That would be a shame for Micawber's, obviously, but moreso for all the readers who haven't gotten their hands on this one yet. I may even beg them to print a couple hundred more of them and ship them our way as we need to re-stock. <br /> <br />This is probably a problem that many small stores run into. They find a way to sell many copies of a book by way of hand-selling or shelftalkers written by staff but the numbers in other places just don't stack up. Publishers are about bottom-line numbers and I recognize that keeping small quantities on hand for only one or two stores to sell well doesn't make financial sense. I know all of this. Yet this is one case which makes me wish it wasn't so.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-1824077922671034282?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-27683630709104240382011-08-10T14:33:00.003-05:002011-08-10T14:35:22.370-05:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gYEIZ8nV5j0/TkLdFCBmcVI/AAAAAAAAAQc/Lvdv8-0Re9Q/s1600/levine.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 120px; height: 184px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gYEIZ8nV5j0/TkLdFCBmcVI/AAAAAAAAAQc/Lvdv8-0Re9Q/s400/levine.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5639312761933951314" /></a> <br />Ten years ago I bought this collection of poems because of the great cover photo. That brought me the joy or learning about Philip Levine. Now he is the new Poet Laureate. Here is the title poem... <br /> <br />We stand in the rain in a long line <br />waiting at Ford Highland Park. For work. <br />You know what work is--if you're <br />old enough to read this you know what <br />work is, although you may not do it. <br />Forget you. This is about waiting, <br />shifting from one foot to another. <br />Feeling the light rain falling like mist <br />into your hair, blurring your vision <br />until you think you see your own brother <br />ahead of you, maybe ten places. <br />You rub your glasses with your fingers, <br />and of course it's someone else's brother, <br />narrower across the shoulders than <br />yours but with the same sad slouch, the grin <br />that does not hide the stubbornness, <br />the sad refusal to give in to <br />rain, to the hours wasted waiting, <br />to the knowledge that somewhere ahead <br />a man is waiting who will say, "No, <br />we're not hiring today," for any <br />reason he wants. You love your brother, <br />now suddenly you can hardly stand <br />the love flooding you for your brother, <br />who's not beside you or behind or <br />ahead because he's home trying to <br />sleep off a miserable night shift <br />at Cadillac so he can get up <br />before noon to study his German. <br />Works eight hours a night so he can sing <br />Wagner, the opera you hate most, <br />the worst music ever invented. <br />How long has it been since you told him <br />you loved him, held his wide shoulders, <br />opened your eyes wide and said those words, <br />and maybe kissed his cheek? You've never <br />done something so simple, so obvious, <br />not because you're too young or too dumb, <br />not because you're jealous or even mean <br />or incapable of crying in <br />the presence of another man, no, <br />just because you don't know what work is. <div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-2768363070910424038?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-38730381328079631062011-08-03T14:55:00.002-05:002011-08-03T15:33:18.602-05:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZoU3gmsLItI/TjmwhTgoZgI/AAAAAAAAAQU/jMtY1Gzkkqo/s1600/failed.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 267px; height: 400px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZoU3gmsLItI/TjmwhTgoZgI/AAAAAAAAAQU/jMtY1Gzkkqo/s400/failed.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5636730494850196994" /></a><br />People often ask me what I do for a living and I respond, "I'm a bookseller." Frequently people will say, "There has to be a better title than that." And, it's true, it is something I've given a good deal of thought to over the years. Tastemaker is a term I've heard used by friends both in and out of the book world. But no matter how that word is framed it just seems highfalutin to me. I am a bookslinger. I am a bookseller.<br /><br />There are lots of aspects of this job that I like but the <span style="font-style:italic;">best</span> part for me is recommending books to a reader or for someone to give as a gift. It's always fun and challenging and rewarding to help get just the right books to people. Earlier today I had a customer tell me I had helped her choose a book for her father and that he had loved. That, alone, makes a day worthwhile. That is all we can hope for.<br /><br />Yet, there is failure. A failure to understand who the gift is for exactly. Their particular likes and dislikes--some of which we weren't privy to. A failure to match the right reader and book on a particular day even. A failure to find the novel that is "entertaining, but not overly simplistic. not middle-brow or too esoteric." I admit it: sometimes these things do not work out. And that's no fun for anyone involved. People often complain about baseball players or weathermen. Three and a half out of ten will get you into the Hall of Fame or 50% is doing your job well. I, we, want to do better than that and know that if we only get four or five out of ten right then people will quickly be looking for other options.<br /><br />So when I hear from a reader that didn't like a suggestion I try to remain calm and let them know it happens. I'll try harder. Tell me what you didn't like. What else should I be looking for? That puts us back on the trail towards success and a book that will please.<br /><br />Like all fun things, there is a little danger in suggesting books. It's a high-wire act without the threat of death. And, for that, I am thankful.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-3873038132807963106?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-48872482063224560732011-07-10T15:02:00.002-05:002011-07-10T15:36:52.425-05:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-k5ndTlXLJwc/ThoGmNVMS6I/AAAAAAAAAQM/njIQntyNke8/s1600/commonplace.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.giftext-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 253px; height: 400px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-k5ndTlXLJwc/ThoGmNVMS6I/AAAAAAAAAQM/njIQntyNke8/s400/commonplace.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5627817937836198818" /></a><br />I love the simple style of the silver type on the basic brown jacket. The commonplace book is one of those items rarely seen or used today but <a href="http://www.proteotypes.org/books/a-little-common-place-book">this</a> gorgeous 'notebook' jointly done by Cabinet Books and Proteotypes. $14<br /><br /><a href="http://tupress.trinity.edu/">Trinity University Press</a> is located in San Antonio, TX and most of the books they publish are Texas history and culture titles. However, when they publish more general books they are, as a rule, awesome. One of my all-time favorites, Peter Turchi's "Maps of the Imagination" was published by them in 2004. They also published a collection entitled "Home Ground" which includes line drawings, quotations and descriptions of American landscape. The newest one of theirs to strike my fancy is "Aelian's On the Nature of Animals" $15.95. Claudius Aelianus died sometime around 235. I have to admit to knowing nothing about him before seeing this book. His collected opinions on animals are part fancy and lore and part early science or nature writing.<br /><br />The bookplate is another facet of book life that has faded out of usage. "Ex Libris: The Art of Bookplates"(Yale University Press $15) is a little, sweet, taste of some of the fine art we're missing out on. It comes with 100 plates and has nice french flaps on the jacket. I admit to having bought a copy of Dos Passos' "1919" solely for the old bookplate in it. <br /><br />All three of these books are fairly priced and beautifully made books published by independent presses.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-4887248206322456073?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-91998924781710794932011-07-07T11:43:00.002-05:002011-07-07T14:14:14.936-05:00A rep friend of ours posted <a href="http://jareksteele.wordpress.com/2011/07/03/words-and-their-meanings/">this</a> on his Facebook page last week and I read it over and found myself agreeing with it nearly completely. I don't know Jarek Steele but he deals, honestly and fairly to my mind, with the difficult issue of vanity publishing and indie publishing. Many times I've thought about addressing this same issue here but have never figured out a way to find the right tone. Not condescending or sarcastic but true to the real problems almost all of these books cause for bookstores.<br /><br />Maybe the most interesting piece of the puzzle is the back and forth in the comments section. This is clearly something that lots of people feel strongly about.<br /><br />In the spirit of celebrating some under the radar indie published books I'll highlight three new titles in my next post and focus on one press, Akashic Books, that is doing very well for itself right now.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-9199892478171079493?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-21982878832597369812011-06-27T09:57:00.002-05:002011-06-27T10:41:26.845-05:00If you're among a certain demographic, let's say 25-40, your e-mail inbox is likely filled each morning with the promise of great savings. It started with Groupon who was quickly followed by a slew of imitators. These companies found local businesses to offer coupons at discounts of at least 50%. Consumers quickly followed. Groupon was the fastest growing company since Amazon. Yet I thought, locally, we had reached a kind of tipping point in the last few months. The local places offering them were inching more and more away from Mpls/St. Paul. And few companies wanted to run the deals more than once because, frankly, they were losing money or barely breaking even.<br /><br />I was strongly tempted to run a Groupon deal at the beginning. I thought it was a good way to reach a younger audience in a new form of advertising. I lost the vote here due to concerns about too little cash coming back and the possibility of our stock getting hammered in the week the coupon ran. Looking back, I'm glad we held off. Since then we've been contacted by no less than eight other companies running these deals. They all have a different slant with the same end result. The promise is an influx of cash(despite the fact that it comes in around 1/4 to 1/5 of cost) and new customers(some of whom were certain to become regulars). Anecdotally, through my personal experience and from talking to other stores who have run coupons, I don't believe the second fact to be true at all. Most users are bargain chasing and unless a majority of users spend way beyond the value of the coupon it's trouble for the retailer.<br /><br />Word on the street is that both Facebook and Google are implementing their own bargain programs this coming Fall. Obviously the sheer numbers of people both of these groups can reach immediately dwarfs Groupon or LivingSocial, Crowd Cut, TC Daily Deals, Dealebob, etc. Recent reports are also reporting that Groupon is nearly insolvent as it stands and they're the most successful of the bunch. One has to wonder how long this can economically continue. It seems to be a failure sandwich with the only winners being the consumers in the middle of the sellers and the businesses.<br /><br />What most concerns me, as someone in retail, is the continued idea that nothing should cost what it really does. We've become a discount nation and it would benefit us all if we remembered the old adage, "There's no such thing as a free lunch."<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-2198287883259736981?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-64387728582124456502011-06-17T10:26:00.003-05:002011-06-17T10:31:56.351-05:00People of all stripes in the book world start their day by reading Shelf Awareness which is an industry daily with reviews, interviews and all kinds of news. Today they have expanded and are presenting a more general 'readers' update as well.<br />If <a href="http://www.shelf-awareness.com/readers-issue.html?issue=2">it</a> is anything like the original it is sure to be good. And free. Good and free.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-6438772858212445650?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-15413783405588568782011-06-03T17:04:00.004-05:002011-06-03T17:08:36.959-05:00I don't know how it took me two whole days to get this<a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2011/06/writer-hans-keilson-101-has-died.html"> news</a>http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif.<br /><br />Since I have been hand-selling the novels of Hans Keilson and Hans Fallada to anyone I can this especially saddens me. But look at that outfit. So refined and snappy.<br /><br />"Comedy in a Minor Key" and "Death of the Adversary" are top notch.<br /><br />Hans, I will miss you.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-1541378340558856878?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-78334138993273712282011-06-01T15:47:00.006-05:002011-06-01T16:06:53.026-05:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EXmtEBfILkQ/Teap5_C5FqI/AAAAAAAAAQA/XSifUwmHvUM/s1600/GoTheFuckToSleep1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 185px; height: 143px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EXmtEBfILkQ/Teap5_C5FqI/AAAAAAAAAQA/XSifUwmHvUM/s400/GoTheFuckToSleep1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5613360799205103266" /></a><br />This book has already danced around the interwebs for the past few months and became big news by hitting #1 on Amazon months before its fall release date. Akashic bumped the date up and we now have the book.<br /><br />Cover your sensitive eyes and ears because Adam Mansbach's <a href="http://www.akashicbooks.com/gothefucktosleep.htm">book</a> is here.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-7833413899327371228?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-14654461157022387632011-05-27T12:59:00.003-05:002011-05-27T18:16:42.639-05:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4pWYZEXwF7M/Td_y223TEuI/AAAAAAAAAPw/xk2klZkb4qA/s1600/briefcase.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4pWYZEXwF7M/Td_y223TEuI/AAAAAAAAAPw/xk2klZkb4qA/s400/briefcase.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5611470684981236450" /></a><br />The following conversation took place via email between Micawber's customers Dobby Gibson and Ben Weaver. Gibson is a Minneapolis-based poet whose most recent book is Skirmish (Graywolf Press). Weaver is a Minneapolis-based musician, cook and poet. His most recent album is Mirepoix & Smoke (Bloodshot Records). <br />Dobby:Hey, Ben. It seems fitting to have this conversation here, since Micawber's first connected us. Hans handed me your book and said, "You should be friends with this guy." And he handed you my book and said, "You should be friends with this guy." Just like that, a great friendship was born. It is in this way booksellers function as village priests as much as bartenders do, don’t you think? They know what everyone in the local hamlet reads and writes, and hopes to read and write. They know our secrets. And the good ones know exactly when to share them.<br />Ben: I agree.I think it’s similar to good cooks and chefs. My favorite is going into a restaurant and having food sent out to you that you didn't ask for,because the cook knows your taste better than you.It's a surprise and an exploration that comes from this trust rooted in taste. Maybe it also has something to do with looking in the nooks and crannies? I think Hans has a pretty good observation for what peoples’ nooks and crannies are. My girlfriend says I’m too abstract when I explain things and that I often repeat the same thing five times in order to make my point. Maybe I’m doing that here. Either way, friends that connect friends through food and books and anything else are certainly a blessing. Usually after you and I hang out I go buy at least one new book or CD. For example the Matthew Rohrer, Destroyer and Preserver — that I picked up after we had breakfast this week. And for some reason every time I see a copy of a Charles Baxter’s Gryphon I think of you. Have you been riding your bike to work? Or are you still waiting for spring?<br />Dobby: I’ve been biking more lately now that it’s 40F when I wake up instead of 30F, which makes all the difference to me. I’ve also been riding my old motor scooter, which lends our loveable cow town a little air of la dolce vita, even when I have to ride in mittens and snowboarding pants. Incidentally, since we’re presumably here to talk about books and art making, I think: for me, “getting around” can be fertile time for working out poems. I prefer betweenness as an art-making state in general: between wake and sleep, trying and not caring, after I’ve read something but before I’ve made up my mind. A cafe is a good place to write a poem, because I’m at some level aware I’m about to leave. I’m curious what your relationship is between your art and all of that moving around you do. And how is your new job as a butcher for Chef Mike Phillips changing your art, if at all?<br />Ben: “Betweenness as an art making state in general." I guess that’s why I am thankful for knowing people like you. To remind me of those things. I spent so many years thinking that I needed to sit by a window and contemplate the world going by all day in order to make good art, or to make art in general, but the truth is I was always most productive when I was doing other stuff, like working a real job. It keeps me in that constant state of betweenness and anything I write is kind of like a dream outside the rest of my life, which is what it should be. I like to write on airplanes. I feel like I’m nowhere and that’s when my ideas are most clear. I like writing on my way to work or in the locker room when I’m changing. In places of transit. Strange how we need impermanent situations to create words that will be stuck on paper or behind music permanently. Strange how in general people’s attention spans are deteriorating yet we still go on sticking words in books and songs to last, hoping to gain someone's fleeting attention. When is the last time you spoke to a stranger? Working with Chef Mike Phillips is great. He is total hero. I feel honored to be a part of his Green Ox Endeavor.<br />Dobby: Your work in the kitchen and your music and writing are blending together in ways that are really interesting to me. I mean, there's the mere title of your new record, Mirepoix and Smoke. But more than that, there's the way this record is unadorned, and uses only the most necessary "ingredients," so that each sound or note or word has more value. These are the same principles that are used in the kitchens you have worked in. Well, anyway, I should leave this kind of thing to Ruth Reichl. I do want to ask you here: what was the last book that you bought at Micawbers, and why did you buy it?<br />Ben: i just Googled Ruth Reichl. I am not very good with names and people, but now I know who is behind Gourmet magazine at least. Were you being sarcastic?<br /><br />I think primitive describes a certain aesthetic or authenticity I gravitate towards. I feel a connection to things in their primitive forms and especially to things as they exist closest to their natural state in the wild. For example, with food I am not a big fan of this gastro science stuff, where half of your meal is hanging from a trapeze over the other half and you have to light something on fire and only breathe through one nostril in order to get the full effect. I am intrigued by things as they exist before humans mess with them, when they are altered from their wild state as little as possible. It’s like thinking about the way eating and people’s relationship was to food before there were farms or controlled growing and harvesting, when things grew in the wild and humans went and gathered them. I guess that pretty clearly illustrates it. The difference between someone harvesting fiddleheads or ramps as opposed to corn or tomatoes. I am not saying one is better, but I do feel that there is something more wild about the ramps and fiddleheads. And that’s where I am drawn.<br /><br />Another long answer, but I guess that has something to do with why I made such a stripped down record and why I worked in restaurants with simple food.<br /><br />I think the last thing I bought at Micawber's was a collection of William Stafford poems. I heard an interviewer ask him once, how he managed to write a poem every day. He responded by saying, "I lower my expectations." I really loved that. So I felt like I needed to read more of his work.<br /><br />A few things I want to ask you. I love how you say in your bio.... that you live in Minneapolis where you are not an academic. How do you feel about words and your relationship to them? It seems like there are a lot of poets who thrive in academia, but you work a pretty interesting jet-setting day job. Does that affect your words?<br />Dobby: I don’t know about jet-setting! There’s nothing glamorous about eating a soggy airport sandwich in coach class.<br />I’ve thought a lot over the years whether there’s any connection between my daily vocation, as a creative director in an agency, and these books I write, which wind up in places like Micawber's. And the answer I’ve come to is: there isn’t. There is no more a relationship between my job and my poetry as there is between my job and my singing in the shower.<br />As far as my relationship with academe, I regret that rather sassy biographical note, which I only used once. The fact is, I’m clearly having it both ways. As an artist, there are some practical advantages to making one’s way outside of the American universities’ creative writing complex and caste system. At the same time, if I’m honest, I’m being fed artistically by that very system. I read books from university presses. I read from, and publish in, academic journals. I’m occasionally invitedhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif to read or guest lecture in university settings. Probably half of my friends are academics. So I’m only half “outsider.” I’m more triangulating, Clinton-style.<br />There’s an apocryphal story about the poet Wallace Stevens, who was an insurance executive by day. When he visited Yale to give a lecture, he showed a professor named Louis Martz the interior of his briefcase and said, “Now you see everything is neatly sorted out here. Over in this compartment is my insurance business with the farmers, and over in this compartment, this is my lecture and some poems that I want to read. I keep them completely separate." I can relate to that briefcase. <br /><br /><br />Dobby's most recent book can be found <a href="https://www.graywolfpress.org/index.php?option=com_phpshop&page=shop.flypage&product_id=270">here</a> and Ben's electronic home is <a href="http://www.benweaver.net/">here</a><br /><br />I'm honored that these two guys took time to discuss their work for us.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-1465446115702238763?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-82750121069251680422011-05-18T10:31:00.003-05:002011-05-18T11:11:17.767-05:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tEVl5LlaRzU/TdPvccZGD3I/AAAAAAAAAPo/RjO5QMbH8z8/s1600/madonnabk.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 232px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tEVl5LlaRzU/TdPvccZGD3I/AAAAAAAAAPo/RjO5QMbH8z8/s400/madonnabk.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5608089232943222642" /></a><br />Every small bookstore has its pet titles that an employee handsells like crazy or uses for a book club or other promotion and puts together some pretty solid sales numbers. And we all depend on those kinds of sales along with Tina Fey and David Brooks. But recently I've been reminded of another fascinating thing--a book that really and simply sells itself.<br /><br />Paul Madonna's 'All Over Coffee' runs every Sunday in the San Francisco Chronicle and he had a book(with the same title) in 2007 that we had and sold a grand total of 1, I believe. Yet in the past two months we've sold a lot of copies of his newest work, "Everything is its own reward". The pen and ink drawings are good enough to allow me to use any superlative I liked but the response from customers is more telling. At least five people have said, "I have to have this book." City Lights Publishing is still mostly known for their poetry work and rightly so. But this is something different and they did it right. <br /><br />Lots of people say, "What is this?" And it's a fair question as it doesn't direct the reader in one linear direction. It's kind of graphic novel, but not really. It's David Macaulay-esque but that is also not a spot-on comparison. It's an artistic collection and on his <a href="http://www.paulmadonna.com/">website</a> he calls it a loose narrative. Something I didn't even realize, after looking at the book several times, is that there are no people in it. The only character is the setting. The book is $27.95 and comes with a pull-out poster that is 31x20.<br /><br />We always guess at what we can sell lots of. Or we hope to find titles we can push. But there are still gems out there that we might ignore or only get a couple copies of that can move themselves if given the chance. It's something sales reps gently remind us of often and here it is in practice.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-8275012106925168042?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-2667946381897952582011-04-26T13:42:00.004-05:002011-04-27T11:08:06.466-05:00And it's pretty shaky but it gives you an idea of us joining a more connected book world. <br /> <br />Like I say on the video, I'm just learning to use this flip recorder and I promise that the quality of footage(and less shakiness) will improve.<a href="<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Rzg6uIgUN_Q?hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Rzg6uIgUN_Q?hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>"></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-266794638189795258?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-61367124505920260282011-04-25T14:28:00.003-05:002011-04-25T17:24:40.718-05:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KftCvjUFU1k/TbX0oFrNCgI/AAAAAAAAAPY/We9C2TdB0nM/s1600/rainer-maria-rilke1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 349px; height: 400px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KftCvjUFU1k/TbX0oFrNCgI/AAAAAAAAAPY/We9C2TdB0nM/s400/rainer-maria-rilke1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5599650681260411394" /></a><br /><br /><br />This comes to us from the kind and wise, or wiseundkind, John Eklund who is our sales rep for Harvard, Yale and MIT Presses. He was also recently named sales rep of the year by Publisher's Weekly, our industry publication. John is a tireless friend to indies and you should read more of his book thoughts at <a href="http://paperoverboard.blogspot.com/">Paper Over Board</a>.<br /><br /><br />When I woke up the other night at 2:30, I flipped on the radio, counting on the dulcet tones of the BBC<br />to put me back to sleep. But on this occasion there was, as is often the case, something interesting<br />enough to have the opposite effect- a panel discussion on “Re-reading: good idea or bad?”<br /><br />I know that lots of people swear by re-reading. If you love a book, why not go back to it? Who hasn’t<br />finished a great novel with a sigh, wishing it was possible to start all over again. Some people do!<br /><br />Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan says that she reads Pride & Prejudice once a year. With all due<br />respect to that wonderful book (and the Justice’s veracity), and with a nod to all the fresh nuance<br />one might glean with each reading- especially from the new annotated edition published by Harvard<br />last year, which seems made for the close reader- my reaction was really? With the mad cascade of<br />important books in the world clamoring for attention, spending time on one you’ve already read a<br />couple dozen times seems like squandering precious reading time. Maybe she’s a fast reader.<br /><br />With every year that passes I’m more keenly aware of all the books that still need to be read, and<br />though I’m tempted to revisit old favorites, I mainly resist the impulse.<br /><br />But a few months ago, out of curiosity, and because – sorry, here comes another plug- Harvard has just<br />published a new translation, I went back to a book I’d first encountered in college that really got under<br />my skin: Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet.<br /><br />The bookstore shelves are crowded with advice books these days. In fact, there’s a whole series<br />called “Letters to a Young fill-in-the-blank,” nice little handbooks by inspirational figures designed to<br />give guidance to aspiring young whatevers.<br /><br />But Rilke is surely the granddaddy of the genre. In 1902, when he was only twenty-six but had already<br />developed a fan base, a nineteen-year old aspiring poet wrote to him asking for career advice. Rilke<br />responded, and a ten letter correspondence ensued.<br /><br />Over a century later, these lovely exchanges speak profoundly to any twenty-first century readers<br />(young or old) who struggle with the creative life: solitude, distraction, self-reliance, doubt, and when to<br />listen to critics.<br /><br />More than that, Rilke pivots to all sort of questions of living in the modern age- sex, love, religion, you<br />name it. The unspooling of these short missives is like eavesdropping on the blossoming of a friendship<br />and a mentorship.<br /><br />Rilke’s admonitions are writer’s block tonic: notice and love the small, insignificant things that the world<br />overlooks; don’t strive so hard for answers but learn to love the questions; art is only a way of living.<br /><br />Having decided to dedicate the time to re-reading the book (yes, it only took an hour, but every reading<br />hour is scarce), it was a great relief that, three decades later, Rilke’s letters spoke to me just as clearly<br />as before.<br /><br />Around the time I first read them, I was also enamored of the artist M.C. Escher. My apartment was<br />plastered with his impossible, recursive images. Today, I can’t stand to look at an Escher drawing. They<br />leave me cold and wondering who the self was who once was moved to tears by them.<br /><br />But I felt like I was re-reading Letters to a Young Poet with my twenty-year old eyes.<br /><br />This new Mark Harman translation is wonderful in every way. Without seeming stilted, he’s restored a<br />sense of Rilke’s style, a really tricky accomplishment. The other main translation, by Stephen Mitchell,<br />leans a little too heavily on contemporary vernacular for my taste. (Think Wynona Ryder’s May Welland<br />in The Age of Innocence. She sounds more late twentieth-century than late nineteenth.) Harman<br />has managed to give the English language reader a seamless rendition while preserving a whiff of the<br />original German.<br /><br />Finally, the package: A charming little hardcover that cries out to be given as a gift. Personally, I’ll be<br />working to replace all those Fountainhead’s and Atlas Shrugged’s being given to young graduates with<br />Letters to a Young Poet. Those smart college students who are enamored of Ayn Rand today will one<br />day see her as the M.C. Escher she is; but they will cherish their Rainer Maria Rilke’s.<br /><br />-<br /><br />John Eklund<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-6136712450592026028?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-71789434414229404252011-04-19T14:22:00.003-05:002011-04-19T14:30:14.744-05:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pCAc5vMMe90/Ta3iPfaTkfI/AAAAAAAAAPQ/pJPaN1x3ZCE/s1600/burgess.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 321px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pCAc5vMMe90/Ta3iPfaTkfI/AAAAAAAAAPQ/pJPaN1x3ZCE/s400/burgess.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5597378667649143282" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.mattburgessbooks.com/events/">Matt Burgess</a> is batting lead-off in a series of weekly postings written by friends of Micawber's. We've got some authors and agents and sales reps who have agreed to lend their wit and wisdom to us. Matt's first novel "Dogfight, a Love Story" was a MN Book Award finalist. I am also including a wonderful image of him grilling a NY Yankees cap. That's class, folks.<br /><br />This top five list is born out of longing. I finished Adam Levine's wonderful, 1000-page debut novel, THE INSTRUCTIONS, and then, feeling all cocky, I started, and am now chugging my way through, Henry Fielding's brick-sized TOM JONES. And so I give you five really short novels in a variety of genres.<br /><br />My favorite really short sci-fi novel: Kurt Vonnegut's SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE. A shattering, impossible novel to describe, but here's one subplot: the main character, a former WWII prisoner-of-war, is kidnapped by an alien race that appears to humans as a toilet plunger with a hand at the top. They put him in a zoo and force him to mate with a porn star. <br /><br />My favorite really short western novel: Charles Portis's TRUE GRIT. The Coen Bros. movie was really great, but it doesn't have Mattie Ross's hilariously stilted narration with its bitter digressions and inexplicable use of "quotation marks." Typical passage: "Thank God for the Harrison Narcotics Law. Also the Volstead Act. I know Governor Smith is "wet" but that is because of his race and religion and he is not personally accountable for that."<br /><br />My favorite really short fantasy novel: Muriel Spark's THE BALLAD OF PECKHAM RYE. The Devil (in the form of Douglas Dougal, a.k.a Dougal Douglas) is hired to do human research into the private lives of a blue-collar town in England. It's insane. Someone gets stabbed in the neck with a corkscrew!<br /><br />My favorite really short espionage novel: John Le Carre's THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD. Graham Greene called it the best spy story he ever read. Le Carre, like his once-in-a-lifetime character George Smiley, stays four steps ahead of you the entire time. Oh man, what an ending. <br /><br />My favorite really short crime novel: Harper Lee's TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. This was the hardest pick for me to make because crime fiction is the genre closest to my heart, but TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD is so tremendously good and there's someone in your life who hasn't read it yet and you should go to a bookstore (like, say, Micawber's) and buy it and give it to them and wait for them to thank you. <br /><br />If you want some more of Matt's thoughts here is a link to an interview with <a href="http://www.bookslut.com/features/2010_09_016580.php">Bookslut</a>.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-7178943441422940425?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-3865496691502829252011-04-15T13:53:00.000-05:002011-04-15T13:56:40.753-05:00Kiss of the Sun by Mary Ruefle<br /><br />If, as they say, poetry is a sign of something<br />among people, then let this be prearranged now,<br />between us, while we are still peoples: that<br />at the end of time, which is also the end of poetry<br />(and wheat and evil and insects and love),<br />when the entire human race gathers in the flesh,<br />reconstituted down to the infant's tiniest fold<br />and littlest nail, I will be standing at the edge<br />of that fathomless crown with an orange for you,<br />reconstituted down to its innermost seed protected<br />by white thread, in case you are thirsty, which<br />does not at this time seem like such a wild guess,<br />and though there will be no poetry between us then,<br />at the end of time, the geese all gone with the seas,<br />I hope you will take it, and remember on earth<br />I did not know how to touch it it was all so raw,<br />as if by chance there is no edge to the crowd<br />or anything else so that I am of it,<br />I will take the orange and toss it as high as I can.<br /><br />Kindly sent to us by our neighbor Jennifer who is the kind of person one can stand on the street and discuss Flannery O'Connor with. That's a good neighbor.<br /><br />Next week we'll have a couple guest posts, more poems and something from me in the mix as well.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-386549669150282925?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-75804813035896033632011-04-13T09:32:00.003-05:002011-04-13T10:36:26.908-05:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0uPgQNISCI8/TaW1Xf-5-tI/AAAAAAAAAPI/Qe0jvB9xEnE/s1600/bjamesmurder.gif"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 124px; height: 187px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0uPgQNISCI8/TaW1Xf-5-tI/AAAAAAAAAPI/Qe0jvB9xEnE/s400/bjamesmurder.gif" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5595077527404673746" /></a><br />This is really a post about a larger issue and a specific author and book. A few weeks back Tom was paging through some catalogs for Spring new titles and came across a book entitled "Popular Crime: Reflections on the Celebration of Violence" by Bill James. There is the Bill James who basically invented the world of uber-geek baseball statisticians that is now so popular. And there is a Bill James who writes mysteries. So, naturally, I assumed the crime book was written by the latter. And, of course, I was wrong. A fine reminder on a number of levels not to make simple assumptions about books and their writers and readers.<br /><br />In fact, all serious readers that I've gotten to know fairly well have an area of interest or fascination or even obsession that wouldn't be known at first glance. There was once an on-line journal, <span style="font-style:italic;">Readerville</span>, that had an entire section called 'The Odd Shelf' where people discussed their odd areas of interest. Or, more accurately, interests that might not be odd in themselves but in terms of their other reading interests. It was always my favorite section to peruse because it allowed people to let their guard down and offered fantastic tips for books I otherwise never would have known about.<br /><br />Lots of people once had hang-ups about admitting that they liked mystery novels or suspense. The quality of that genre, in general, has gotten better so the stigma(often self-imposed) isn't what it once was. Lots of folks cop to reading cookbooks but never actually cooking from them. Armchair travel is very popular. The thing is, now that I really think about it, I know readers of all kinds who feel sheepish about admitting to liking almost any kind of book. "Oh, it's crazy, but I like architecture/urban planning books." I heard that one yesterday. Why is it crazy?<br /><br />For me it's the greatest power of books. It affords all of us the chance to learn about whatever we want. Or enjoy whatever we want. I can't change the oil on my car--but I could learn to do it and that would shock my friends. Yet, ten years ago, I couldn't cook at all. Nothing beyond toast or noodles with butter and black pepper. Now I can. I was a horrible science student but I love animal biology. I have shelves of books on wolves, grizzly bears and pumas. Tigers have been the latest added into the mix. Even I can't remember how that started. I also do enjoy true crime and gangster history especially in relation to Minnesota. So this new Bill James book is right in my wheelhouse.<br /><br />"Popular Crime will remind you of just how wonderful a writer Mr. James is. Incisive analysis and encyclopedic knowledge tempered by a sometimes morbid, but never jaded, dose of Americana: it's sabermetrics meets the Coen Brothers."<br />-- Nate Silver<br /><br />That quote hooked me. What's on your Odd Shelf?<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-7580481303589603363?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-91540862649986118242011-04-12T14:17:00.001-05:002011-04-12T14:18:15.089-05:00Hope Says<br /> <br />Hope says: Someday you will<br />see her, if you know how to wait.<br />Despair says:<br />She is only your bitterness now.<br />Beat, heart ... The earth<br />has not swallowed everything.<br /> -- Antonio Machado<br /><br /><br />Sent to us by friend of the store and high-school teacher Jacey. She is also a great fan of "Three Lives" in NYC.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-9154086264998611824?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-40541326669571371712011-04-07T11:18:00.001-05:002011-04-07T11:20:22.026-05:00This was sent by friend and customer Ann A., who works in wine distribution and has read an awful lot about bees. Thanks, Ann.<br /><br />Gospel <br /><br />~ Philip Levine <br /><br /> <br />The new grass rising in the hills,<br />the cows loitering in the morning chill,<br />a dozen or more old browns hidden<br />in the shadows of the cottonwoods<br />beside the streambed. I go higher<br />to where the road gives up and there's<br />only a faint path strewn with lupine<br />between the mountain oaks. I don't<br />ask myself what I'm looking for.<br />I didn't come for answers<br />to a place like this, I came to walk<br />on the earth, still cold, still silent.<br />Still ungiving, I've said to myself,<br />although it greets me with last year's<br />dead thistles and this year's<br />hard spines, early blooming<br />wild onions, the curling remains<br />of spider's cloth. What did I bring<br />to the dance? In my back pocket<br />a crushed letter from a woman<br />I've never met bearing bad news<br />I can do nothing about. So I wander<br />these woods half sightless while<br />a west wind picks up in the trees<br />clustered above. The pines make<br />a music like no other, rising and<br />falling like a distant surf at night<br />that calms the darkness before<br />first light. "Soughing" we call it, from<br />Old English, no less. How weightless<br />words are when nothing will do.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-4054132666957137171?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-73584809550740794542011-04-05T16:18:00.003-05:002011-04-05T16:50:13.522-05:00This was sent by our good friend Johanna who sells books to us and many other indie stores across the land. She lives in Louisville and I suppose she is busy shopping for a derby hat.<br /><br />On Swimming<br /><br />The rivers of this country are sweet<br />as a troubadour's song,<br />the heavy sun wander westward<br />on yellow circus wagons.<br />Little village churches<br />hold a fabric of silence so fine<br />and old that even a breath<br />could tear it.<br />I love to swim in the sea, which keeps<br />talking to itself<br />in the monotone of a vagabond<br />who no longer recalls<br />exactly how long he's been on the road.<br />Swimming is like prayer: <br />palms join and part,<br />join and part,<br />almost without end.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-7358480955074079454?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-67137168797504043002011-04-03T12:09:00.003-05:002011-04-03T14:36:21.461-05:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QU9kRK3iEfg/TZjMLRkseaI/AAAAAAAAAPA/ZVhG5Ew7N2Y/s1600/paleking.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 380px; height: 253px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QU9kRK3iEfg/TZjMLRkseaI/AAAAAAAAAPA/ZVhG5Ew7N2Y/s400/paleking.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5591443431448410530" /></a><br />So again actual bookstores are upset with Amazon over perceived or real advantages the behemoth gets. Now? Now it is <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2011/0331/David-Foster-Wallace-s-The-Pale-King-is-released-online-before-it-appears-in-bookstores">this</a>.<br /><br />What to do? Be outraged? Boycott Hachette(the publisher who knowingly made this deal with the devil)? Or shrug?<br /><br />I mostly opt with option three. Outrage won't change this. Boycotting Hachette will only hurt the quality of our store and the choice in books our customers have. The reality is that we are long past a time when anyone was on equal footing in this business. Overall sales to indies across the land are a mere drop in the overall bucket of sales. That is real. And publishers are scrambling to save themselves. They'll take any kind of revenue they can get because they are desperate.<br /><br />The only piece of this puzzle that is a little disturbing to me is this quote: “I don’t really understand the confusion,” Ms. Dewey said. “This happens all the time. There’s nothing unusual about it.” That's apparently from one of their publicists(Nicole Dewey). And it's pretty pathetic aside from her willingness to toe the company line. Sure, no one should be upset about the fact that they can't sell a book customers are asking about and others are selling.<br /><br />Here's my bottom line--on-sale dates are pointless at this point. Outside of Harry Potter, where Scholastic basically made booksellers promise their eternal souls not to sell the book before a specific date, I'll sell any book that comes into the store. Before the date or not. Because I know other stores are doing the same. When I've complained to publishers about this fact I have never, not once, heard back from them. They won't punish the chains or Amazon because they can't afford to. So if they decide to punish us or some other small store so be it.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-6713716879750404300?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-58418183007671632022011-03-31T13:42:00.002-05:002011-03-31T14:22:19.580-05:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7lvDHf9nINs/TZTUOBx6QNI/AAAAAAAAAO4/6ZRDWMO5dtA/s1600/casey-at-the-bat.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 286px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7lvDHf9nINs/TZTUOBx6QNI/AAAAAAAAAO4/6ZRDWMO5dtA/s400/casey-at-the-bat.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5590326374934659282" /></a><br />It's Opening Day and hope springs eternal. National Poetry Month doesn't start until tomorrow but this is a good segue.<br /><br />CASEY AT THE BAT*<br />A Ballad of the Republic, Sung in the Year 1888<br /><br />The outlook wasn’t brilliant for the Mudville nine that day:<br />The score stood jour to two with but one inning more to play.<br />And then when Cooney died at first, and Barrows did the same,<br />A sickly silence jell upon the patrons of the game.<br />A straggling few got up to go in deep despair. The rest<br />Clung to that hope which springs eternal in the human breast;<br />They thought if only Casey could but get a whack at that—<br />We’d put up even money now with Casey at the bat.<br />But Flynn preceded Casey, as did also Jimmy Blake,<br />And the former was a lulu and the latter was a cake;<br />So upon that stricken multitude grim melancholy sat,<br />For there seemed but little chance of Casey’s getting to the bat.<br />But Flynn let drive a single, to the wonderment of all,<br />And Blake, the much despis-ed, tore the cover off the ball;<br />And when the dust had lifted, and the men saw what had occurred,<br />There was Johnnie safe at second and Flynn a-hugging third.<br />Then from 5,000 throats and more there rose a lusty yell;<br />It rumbled through the valley, it rattled in the dell;<br />It knocked upon the mountain and recoiled upon the flat,<br />For Casey, mighty Casey, was advancing to the bat.<br />There was ease in Casey’s manner as he stepped into his place;<br />There was pride in Casey’s bearing and a smile on Casey’s face.<br />And when, responding to the cheers, he lightly doffed his hat,<br />No stranger in the crowd could doubt ‘twas Casey at the bat.<br />Ten thousand eyes were on him as he rubbed his hands with dirt;<br />Five thousand tongues applauded when he wiped them on his shirt.<br />Then while the writhing pitcher ground the ball into his hip,<br />Defiance gleamed in Casey’s eye, a sneer curled Casey’s lip.<br />And now the leather-covered sphere came hurtling through the air,<br />And Casey stood a-watching it in haughty grandeur there.<br />Close by the sturdy batsman the ball unheeded sped—<br />“That ain’t my style,” said Casey. “Strike one,” the umpire said.<br />From the benches, black with people, there went up a muffled roar,<br />Like the beating of the storm-waves on a stern and distant shore.<br />“Kill him! Kill the umpire!” shouted some one on the stand;<br />And it’s likely they’d have killed him had not Casey raised his hand.<br />With a smile of Christian charity great Casey’s visage shone;<br />He stilled the rising tumult; he bade the game go on;<br />He signaled to the pitcher, and once more the spheroid flew;<br />But Casey still ignored it, and the umpire said, “Strike two.”<br />“Fraud!” cried the maddened thousands, and echo answered fraud;<br />But one scornful look from Casey and the audience was awed.<br />They saw his face grow stern and cold, they saw his muscles strain,<br />And they knew that Casey wouldn’t let that ball go by again.<br />The sneer is gone from Casey’s lip, his teeth are clenched in hate;<br />He pounds with cruel violence his bat upon the plate.<br />And now the pitcher holds the ball, and now he lets it go,<br />And now the air is shattered by the force of Casey’s blow.<br />Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright;<br />The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,<br />And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout;<br />But there is no joy in Mudville—mighty Casey has struck out.<br /><br /><br />Also, if there is a poem(s) you are especially fond of please send it to me and I'll be posting poems here throughout the month of April.<br /><br />Go Twins.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-5841818300767163202?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-37662172838987807262011-03-15T15:42:00.002-05:002011-03-15T16:58:59.905-05:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2yIzW9uSEwg/TX_hHdw4xgI/AAAAAAAAAOw/uF4K8Ue3wIM/s1600/TheCowsWeb.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 100px; height: 150px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2yIzW9uSEwg/TX_hHdw4xgI/AAAAAAAAAOw/uF4K8Ue3wIM/s400/TheCowsWeb.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5584429581327713794" /></a><br />No, not the novel by Jane Smiley. Rather, the newest title in <a href="http://www.sarabandebooks.org/">Sarabande's</a> very cool Quarternote Chapbook Series. #9 in this series is Lydia Davis' "The Cows" which is about the three cows that are her neighbors in upstate New York.<br /><br />Davis is a writer not to be trifled with. Just in the past year she's published a collection of her own short stories, a celebrated translation of "Madame Bovary" and this new chapbook. "Oh, I haven't been up to too much. Just translating French fiction and writing essays about cows." Indeed.<br /><br />My own personal favorite of hers is "Samuel Johnson Is Indignant". Her brief stories are little magic boxes to be opened again and again. In this form, only Amy Hempel is in her company as far as I'm concerned.<br /><br />Back to Sarabande for a moment. These Kentuckians are people I've lauded before as a press that finds good writers that are other presses have rejected. Then the big boys come and steal them away. And that, like all theft, is a form of admiration. If you take a look at Sarabande's catalog it quickly becomes clear that there no throw-away titles. There isn't an "oh, why not?" among them. The list is small and considered and something they believe in completely. So, yes, even this book about cows is the real deal.<br /><br />The chapbook is a pretty little thing that combines images of the cows with Davis' musings from different times of the day and year. The chapbook form is perfect for this kind of project or a longish prose poem--which, in small ways, this actually resembles. The book is $9.95 and is perfect for the bovine lover in your life.<br /><br />Here is the rest of the series, chronologically and with links to their pages on the website.<br /><br /><br />Music Like Dirt, Frank Bidart<br />http://www.sarabandebooks.org/?page_id=522<br /><br /><br />Lost River, James Tate<br />http://www.sarabandebooks.org/?page_id=606<br /><br /><br />October, Louise Gluck<br />http://www.sarabandebooks.org/?page_id=661<br /><br /><br />The Wrong End of the Rainbow, Charles Wright<br />http://www.sarabandebooks.org/?page_id=730<br /><br /><br />First Things to Hand, Robert Pinsky<br />http://www.sarabandebooks.org/?page_id=855<br /><br /><br />The Preacher, Gerald Stern<br />http://www.sarabandebooks.org/?page_id=943<br /><br /><br />Contents of a Minute, Josephine Jacobsen<br />http://www.sarabandebooks.org/?page_id=956<br /><br /><br />Lucy, Jean Valentine<br />http://www.sarabandebooks.org/?page_id=1022<br /><br /><br />The Cows, Lydia Davis<br />http://www.sarabandebooks.org/?page_id=5111<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-3766217283898780726?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-15071235662982883042011-03-07T15:18:00.005-06:002011-03-07T18:19:22.976-06:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1E9MW80OhQ0/TXVSo6Qpz1I/AAAAAAAAAOo/SGn6J5-X8yU/s1600/wulling_plt_composingtable_fs.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1E9MW80OhQ0/TXVSo6Qpz1I/AAAAAAAAAOo/SGn6J5-X8yU/s400/wulling_plt_composingtable_fs.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5581458175982948178" /></a><br />I posted awhile back about Micawber's friend and neighbor <a href="http://www.thefriends.org/programs/mnbookawards/mba_nominations/mba_book_artist_award.html">Regula Russelle</a> who has been named the 2011 Book Artist Award Winner. Regula is but one of the many skilled artisans we're lucky to have in these parts keeping an old art form alive and well. The image I've attached to this post serves a double purpose. First, it's an image of Emerson Wulling's workstation. Wulling was an amateur print and bookmaker. He was also the father of a very good customer of Micawber's. When Regula began her work she bought some of Emerson's letterpress pieces. Second, the woodcut that image comes from was done by Gaylord Schanilec. And Gaylord is really a story unto himself.<br /><br />When I first started working at The Hungry Mind in 1999 I was ga-ga over some of the broadsides that were made for our event series. Gaylord was behind all of that. And he continues to make incredible prints, broadsides and books. I count myself lucky to be among his club of regular buyers. Take a look at his <a href="http://www.midnightpapersales.com/pages/schanilec_main.html">website</a> and his work. He continues to buck the trend and works against the quick, easy and cookie-cutter mode that runs almost everything these days.<br /><br />Again, Gaylord's work reminds me that books are not one thing. They are bigger than an electronic screen or simple paper pages. The book is art--and he proves that in every single thing he creates.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-1507123566298288304?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-82350015369066149422011-03-02T14:09:00.004-06:002011-03-02T15:57:07.752-06:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-H8Gd_lH9BtA/TW68YmR377I/AAAAAAAAAOg/P2eGSTh2egs/s1600/volt.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 124px; height: 186px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-H8Gd_lH9BtA/TW68YmR377I/AAAAAAAAAOg/P2eGSTh2egs/s400/volt.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5579604119137021874" /></a><br />There's a certain kind of man, forty-ish, with too much pomade and bad black dress shoes, that tries to woo his date by scanning the fiction shelves and pretending he's read every single thing in the section. Or, at least, the stuff of real quality. By which he means nothing in the last fifty years for certain. Because, as he said two nights ago, "It's all trite garbage." And, sure, it'd be easy to laugh at that man or scorn him or hex him with voodoo. Rather, let's take a different tact.<br /><br />Dear Man(in this case Barry),<br />I'm sorry some teacher did this to you. Taught you that nothing modern or contemporary can compare with the oldies and goodies. You know, the classics. The canon.<br /><br />But we at Micawber's are here to help you help yourself. It will be easy and fun and you probably will learn something. Here's the twelve steps.<br /><br />1.)I've gone mad for a Nigerian-American man named Teju Cole whose book "Open City" is a revelation. It might not change the way you think about fiction, but it did for me. His <a href="http://op-cit.tumblr.com/">tumblr</a> page is the finest electronic accompaniment to a book I've yet seen.<br />2.)<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/features/2010/06/14/100614fi_fiction_20under40_qa_karen-russell">Karen Russell</a> is every bit as good as the reviews she's getting. "Swamplandia" and her book of stories give Florida a whole new vibe.<br />3.)From our friends to the north, we have Camilla Gibb's "The Beauty of Humanity Movement" which releases on 3/17 and made me want to eat pho morning, noon and night. Her <a href="http://www.camillagibb.ca/home.cfm">blog</a> is far better than the average author blog.<br />4.) Téa Obreht will be reading at <a href="http://www.magersandquinn.com/index.php?main_page=event">Magers&Quinn</a> on March 14th at 7:30 p.m. She is the latest wunderkind but don't hate because she's got talent. <br />5.) Algonquin Books finds hidden gems and, coming in May, Tayari Jones' "Silver Sparrow" will be a perfect summer read. <a href="http://www.tayarijones.com/">She's</a> legit.<br />6.) 5Chapter Books is a new press and they deserve some love for putting out a quality book that looks <a href="http://www.emmastraub.net/">pretty</a> too. Emma Straub's "Other People We Married" is short stories. Lorrie Moore and Dan Chaon like them and that should count for an awful lot.<br />7.) Let's segue to another fine book of short fiction. "Things We Didn't See Coming" by Steven Amsterdam is now out in paperback and while I preferred the minimalist hardcover edition, the orange cone on the paperback is snazzy. Entertaining and smart.<br />8.) "We, The Drowned" took all of the UK by storm and was selected by readers of a major newspaper as the best Dutch novel of the last 25 years. Carsten Jensen is the author and he's the old man of this group at fifty. Not to say that 50 is old.<br />9.) Another International Bestseller is "The Blindness of the Heart" by Julia Franck. It won the German Book Prize and check <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Franck">this</a> out--Belarusian, Taiwanese and Galician? Holy smokes.<br />10.)I wish everyone would stop comparing Hannah Pittard to Jeffrey Eugenides but with the collective unnamed narrator it's going to be tough to stop. "The Fates Will Find Their Way" is breezy but I mean that in the best way possible. It makes time move quickly.<br />11.) It's a joy, as a bookseller, to have choices. You want great Ethiopian fiction? Okay, take your choice: Maaza Mengiste or Dinaw Mengestu. You can't go wrong. Better yet, read both with a friend. Go to <a href="http://www.fasika.com/welcome.html">Fasika</a> on Snelling Ave and you will be pleased.<br />12.) No, no, no I do not get paid by <a href="http://www.graywolfpress.org/component/page,shop.flypage/product_id,332/category_id,9acc43383364035e9993a61305bca462/option,com_phpshop/">Graywolf Press</a> to say that they are the finest in the land. Alan Heathcock's "Volt" is set in Krafton, a fictional place. And these stories are hard to read because they are tough and will beat your spirit about. After I read the first story I felt like I'd been hit with a bag full of bricks. And I wanted some more.<br /><br />Why not? Why not a baker's dozen of sorts. For some local talent check out Keith Hollihan, Kevin Fenton or either of the Peter's(Geye and Bognanni). They also have books out within the last year that might be a lot of things but they aren't trite and they ain't garbage.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-8235001536906614942?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-66222798768775685312011-03-01T14:55:00.003-06:002011-03-01T16:51:34.527-06:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7eg2EqktCkk/TW1qzF8EOuI/AAAAAAAAAOY/MeyRkM2b0v0/s1600/duke_snider.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 275px; height: 315px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7eg2EqktCkk/TW1qzF8EOuI/AAAAAAAAAOY/MeyRkM2b0v0/s320/duke_snider.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5579232939381897954" /></a><br />The Duke passed away a few years ago and I've always felt for a great man and ballplayer who had to share not just an era and a position but also a city with Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle. That's enough to make anyone seem like the third fiddle.<br /><br />So here is to Duke and his memory and it being March 1st and a customer asking me for a list of ten baseball books I love. In no order,<br /><br />1.) We Are The Ship-Kadir Nelson<br />2.) The Brothers K-David James Duncan<br />3.) What Do You Think of Ted Williams Now?-Richard Ben Cramer<br />4.) Season Ticket-Roger Angell<br />5.) The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers-Rob Neyer and Bill James<br />6.) Cobb: A Bio-Al Stump<br />7.) Baseball's Golden Age-Charles Conlon(photos with great bio. info)<br />8.) A Prayer For Owen Meany-John Irving<br />9.) What a Time It Was-W.C. Heinz(for the piece 'Stan Musial's Last Day' alone)<br />10.) Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues-James A. Riley(ed.)<br /><br />I know I'm supposed to have "Eight Men Out" or Robert Coover's "The Universal Baseball Association Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop." included. I also enjoyed "Moneyball" by Michael Lewis and I learned a lot from it but it didn't mark my baseball soul. <br /><br />let me know of your favorite(s). I can't wait to get a display of baseball books up in the next couple weeks. We're getting close.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-6622279876877568531?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-14740335168288303992011-02-23T17:19:00.002-06:002011-02-23T18:13:05.429-06:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LOPRCZGga64/TWWii4spKNI/AAAAAAAAAOQ/DfsNmbIwIsA/s1600/01_Wallace_Stegner.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 190px; height: 238px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LOPRCZGga64/TWWii4spKNI/AAAAAAAAAOQ/DfsNmbIwIsA/s320/01_Wallace_Stegner.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5577042433787111634" /></a><br />I traveled West to ski with some family a few weeks ago and got to partake in one of my favorite pastimes-checking out what people are reading on the planes and in the airport. And, more recently, I've been taking the light-rail and bus to work due to some serious snow. Again, I've been scanning the aisles. I have nothing illuminating to say about the current state of e-readers versus paper books. But I did have some fun and here is my microcosm.<br /><br />Magazines, as always I think, rule on the airplane. I got to read some <span style="font-style:italic;">Vanity Fair</span> which included a nice story on the making and life after of Thelma and Louise plus a feature on Mark Wahlberg and his ongoing golden touch with HBO series development. My uncle dug into a Dan Brown book because he couldn't find any Louis L'Amour he hadn't read. Several others around me were reading Michael Lewis, Alice Munro and the ubiquitous Stieg Larsson(hey, somebody should try and find the next Icelandic/Swede/Finn/Norse thriller. Sorry, couldn't help it).<br /><br />The train/bus scenario is a little different as people, most anyhow, are reading quick-hitters like mystery, romance, sci-fi or newspapers. And there are the sleepers, the texters and the talkers(to themselves or whomever else will listen). As you near the Univ. of MN it gets more academic with Chomsky and various theory books. Textbooks of all stripes mixed with some Palahniuk and, yes even still, God Bless Kurt Vonnegut. I saw a copy of "I Got a Job!" and a woman reading the Koran. "The Passage" and Stephen King. Lots of things I couldn't recognize. And me, reading Jane Leavy's bio of Sandy Koufax.<br /><br />But the highlight? The thing I saw which gladenned me and gave me hope despite it all was the woman in seat 19A on the flight from Denver to Minneapolis. She was on page 380 or 381 of Wallace Stegner's fine "Angle of Repose". This novel that starts, "Now I believe they will leave me alone." So I did leave her to her reading. I didn't poke my head around the corner and say, "Great book." or ask to become her friend. That would have been a little much. I simply returned to Tea Obreht's "The Tiger's Wife" and smiled big.<br /><br />Looking for pictures of Mr. Stegner I found a great <a href="http://wallacestegner.org/">collection </a> here including the one where he looks like an old-school soda jerk. The one I'm including in this post is also a classic. That, folks, is one reason why he was oft-known as 'The Dean of Western Writers.'<br /><br />Plus, he's originally from Lake Mills, Iowa so we can claim his as a Midwesterner.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-1474033516828830399?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-67869533066910175022011-02-21T13:15:00.003-06:002011-02-21T13:29:20.897-06:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RFyByLCoTAU/TWK8zGILxsI/AAAAAAAAAOI/ATjOjKYHxrI/s1600/owl.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 134px; height: 200px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RFyByLCoTAU/TWK8zGILxsI/AAAAAAAAAOI/ATjOjKYHxrI/s200/owl.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5576226874642384578" /></a><br />Somewhere, I'm sure it is anyhow. Here in St. Paul it's a lazy kind of curl up and read a book kind of day. Or sit on the couch and surf the internets.<br /><br />The combination of President's Day and over a foot of snow has combined to make several local book folks close their doors for the day. Not us! We are intrepid booksellers and if you decide to make it here before 8 p.m. tonight we will be here.<br /><br />Here are two quick links to things I've seen lately and enjoyed. The first one I am blatantly stealing from our friends at <a href="http://magersandquinn.com/">Magers and Quinn</a> and it's a site run by someone who works at a second-hand store and posts about the things he/she finds in books. <a href="http://www.forgottenbookmarks.com/">Forgotten Bookmarks</a><br /><br />The second is a list of the 100 best last lines in novels as compiled by <span style="font-style:italic;"></span><span style="font-style:italic;">The American Book Review</span>. <a href="http://americanbookreview.org/OneHundredLines.asp">Here</a> is the link.<br /><br />When I worked at Rag and Bone--a beloved used store in Mpls.--I found a very cool old German bookmark with an owl at the top. Still have it.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-6786953306691017502?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-57262373319886089262011-02-20T12:21:00.003-06:002011-02-20T12:45:46.165-06:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EpejhvQB9x8/TWFgobAYLSI/AAAAAAAAAN4/Dsu1n-79TEI/s1600/icedamcase.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EpejhvQB9x8/TWFgobAYLSI/AAAAAAAAAN4/Dsu1n-79TEI/s200/icedamcase.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5575844061221760290" /></a><br />Here are a couple shots of the ice dams(in partial) that tore down the power lines for our entire building. So, if we haven't responded to some form of communication from you it's because we were down for two whole days and are still catching up.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-5726237331988608926?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-49894913213122862342011-02-14T16:52:00.002-06:002011-02-15T15:16:01.978-06:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-asf6rx-1eiU/TVrtC-FZyFI/AAAAAAAAANw/erMPrONzXKE/s1600/james-earl-ray.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 144px; height: 200px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-asf6rx-1eiU/TVrtC-FZyFI/AAAAAAAAANw/erMPrONzXKE/s200/james-earl-ray.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5574028124105590866" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mBKZWa-rUAU/TVrs33fa8QI/AAAAAAAAANo/z7nSnzQ22So/s1600/220px-RobertJohson.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 141px; height: 200px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mBKZWa-rUAU/TVrs33fa8QI/AAAAAAAAANo/z7nSnzQ22So/s200/220px-RobertJohson.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5574027933357109506" /></a><br />to you and me and everyone else. Is what the whole title should probably read. Because like/admit/believe it or not, design informs how most of us buy and read books. Here's one quick story--<br /><br />I just finished Hampton Sides' "Hellhound on His Trail" this past weekend and only after completing it did I realize how genius the cover art is. The book is the story of James Earl Ray(aka Eric S. Galt, aka George Sneyd, aka John Willard, aka Harvey Lowmeyer) and his assassination--and flight from justice--of Martin Luther King, Jr. The book is popular history done well and, if we can set aside the conspiracy theories of either government or KKK involvement, gives the reader a good look at the political and personal dangers chasing King.<br /><br />But lets get back to the cover. The paperback, which releases on March 22, 2011, has a more familiar image on the cover. It is a photo five people standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, TN. It's a good shot for the book and it makes sense. The hardcover has a white dustjacket with blue typeface. The greatness comes from the visage of a man. A man who looks like a junior-high teacher from the 1960's or an insurance salesman. He is fairly plain and non-descript. It was this facet of Ray that allowed him to slip through the hands of prisons(two escapes) and through the minds of people who taught or lived near him. He was more than a chameleon. Over and over he was referred to as "common" or "bland." <br /><br />So design is not always a success only if it forces a reader to pick up a book and look it over. Chip Kidd is probably the only artist who any reader seeks out for his art alone. So the job mainly consists of creating something attractive enough to bust through the monotony. For once, I realized the power of a gentle image. Something that said much more about the book and its subject than I would have guessed at first glance. <br /><br />Two interesting notes. Ray was so willing and able to blend in that several guards at a Jefferson City, MO prison that he broke out of didn't know his name at all--they only knew him as Prisoner 416-J. He had been there for over eight years. Second is that the title of the book is a variation of a blues song by Robert Johnson first recorded in 1937. A year later Johnson was dead and folklore has always had it that he sold his soul to the devil to play the guitar so well.<br /><br />He sang, "And the day keeps on worrying me, there's a hell-hound on my trail."<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-4989491321312286234?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-18217526630431062372011-02-04T11:48:00.001-06:002011-02-04T12:23:36.633-06:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_hNbEENammy0/TUxEIoe33mI/AAAAAAAAANg/UCoGMuMGEgg/s1600/borders.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_hNbEENammy0/TUxEIoe33mI/AAAAAAAAANg/UCoGMuMGEgg/s320/borders.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5569901754247011938" /></a><br /><br />The other day a friend of mine said, "Seeing Borders go Titanic has to make you happy." He was the fourth or fifth person to make a statement along those lines within a week and it really made me think. And the answer is: No, it doesn't bring me any happiness. The reasons for that are many and complex and murky--even to myself--but here's some of it.<br /><br />One, a lot of people will lose their jobs. People at Borders. People at publishers and distributors that Borders doesn't pay. Just last week B&N laid off some of their most experienced staff. One day they report great holiday sales and a strong fiscal quarter. The next they axe the regional buyers. The people who know the difference between the Roseville store and the Galeria. The kind of people who gave those stores a little different look and feel. Now, more than ever, a B&N store in Phoenix will look like Tulsa will look like Baltimore will look like Sioux Falls. That, on a book level, disappoints me as well.<br /><br />Whether in Shelf Awareness, Publishers Weekly or any of the legions of lit blogs we get more bad news every day about the chains. They are closing distribution centers. The Upper West Side Manhattan B&N is closing. The Nook info center in each store will be in place of 1,000 sq. feet of primo book display real estate. They're saying, in essence, "Hey! Let us help you buy something that will allow you to never shop here again." It's lunacy and if they think they can do battle with Amazon and Apple I have some bad news for them. Amazon will out-discount you and sell you a box of pancake mix and a pair of corduroy pants with a smile before showing you the door. Because it was the indie stores 15-20 years ago that tried to compete with the chains in discounting that closed first. You show me an indie that discounts heavy, other than Powells, and I'll be shocked. You don't win playing the same game.<br /><br />Just today B&N advertised their deal with Groupon. For $10 the customer gets a $20 certificate. Of the $10 paid Groupon gets half and the store gets half. So I joked to Tom that we should have everyone we know buy one and then we could use them to do a backlist buy, in effect, with them. But that was just a joke. If I was a more cunning business man it would be serious.<br /><br />The trouble they are facing is one of scale and a model that never really was sustainable. Most, if not all, of the problems that plague the book industry are related to this. Why do so many books get remaindered? Because publishers, even small ones, are forced to print too many books in order to get good display or review attention. A really radical idea would be for a publisher to say, "We're going to print less. We'll re-print quickly, if needed, but we want to be realistic." They might even make money. Returns policies? They are, absolutely, as is because they are necessary for the chains to have stacks of fifty copies of every celebrity book out there. Because to actually pay for those piles--that would be tough. I, for one, would love to see the end of returns. Would it challenge us? Would it make us really think about the difference between 2-5 books? Yeah, it would. But it would also level the playing field quickly. Buy what you want and sell it for what you can. It's real American enterprise. I'd love to sell books like the Gap sells t-shirts. <br /><br />The book business is sick and everyone in it is feeling it in some form. Long ago I gave up hating the chains because it didn't do me or anyone else any good. I didn't want to be one of those 'High-Fidelity'-esque guys. It's ugly. So I don't look forward to a day when I read about Borders closing or declaring bankrupcty(which, depending on who you listen to, is coming any day. Or not at all.) I don't want more people to lose their jobs. About 1% of people who work in books are in it for the money and the rest of us are all here for the same reason and that reason is our love of books and reading. That's me, the guy working at the anarchist book collective and the semi-retired woman working at Borders. I don't want my friends who work for and run small publishers to get stuck holding a bill that is never going to be paid.<br /><br />I guess I need to finish this by answering a question from a customer and from another bookseller. Yes, it is Hans that writes the blog. Just wanted to note that not all of my co-workers agree with me all of the time and that all of the above is just my opinions. Nothing more. And the photo is from somewhere in the UK.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-1821752663043106237?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-40246515530301993562011-01-31T13:51:00.002-06:002011-01-31T14:08:37.330-06:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_hNbEENammy0/TUcWvjqjqyI/AAAAAAAAANM/TZX_LGYfb0k/s1600/healy.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_hNbEENammy0/TUcWvjqjqyI/AAAAAAAAANM/TZX_LGYfb0k/s320/healy.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5568444470550309666" /></a><br />The self-publishing world is, truth be told, about the fifth layer of hell for me most days. The pricing is often out of whack--especially given the quality of most print jobs. Though, to be fair, the quality is improving. <br /><br />But all is not lost in this game. I'd guess most stores have a few major success stories with self-published work. Mostly, again I'm guessing, those books that succeed have a local angle or flavor. That alone isn't enough. You also need to have an author who is willing to do a lot of work; be their own publicity machine and network to friends and family and anywhere else they can. Above all, the book needs to be well-written and edited in a careful manner. That seems like it should go without saying but, believe me, it sadly does not.<br /><br />This week we're happy to have one of these bright spots reading at Micawber's. Dave Healy, former editor of the <span style="font-style:italic;"></span>Park Bugle<span style="font-style:italic;"></span> will read from his new collection of essays and editorials from the paper. "Above the Fold" is the collection he recently put together and it's different from most self-published work in that it has already been through editing and even actually been published.<br /><br />Dave is a quiet sort of man in person, so it was always a little surprising to read a voice with such authority on the page. His editorials were local, of course, but they almost always opened themselves to larger questions. His wit and sense of curiosity always present. His pieces, like the best of this kind of writing, seem to take the author out of the equation. It is a public voice written by an individual.<br /><br />We're very happy to provide the 'launch' for his book and look forward to having him with us in the store.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-4024651553030199356?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-33716640822346609832011-01-29T16:01:00.002-06:002011-01-29T17:55:39.153-06:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_hNbEENammy0/TUSo9eLBTSI/AAAAAAAAANE/1oL56T4gNdw/s1600/regula.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_hNbEENammy0/TUSo9eLBTSI/AAAAAAAAANE/1oL56T4gNdw/s320/regula.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5567760813361548578" /></a><br /><br />A lot of our customers are artists. We've got potters and painters and drummers and more. And maybe I should start a monthly feature showing off some of the cool, talented, folks who shop here. <br /><br />For now I just want to give a little note of congrats to Regula Russelle who has recently won the <a href="http://www.thefriends.org/programs/mnbookawards/mba_nominations/mba_book_artist_award.html">2011 Minnesota Book Artist Award</a>.<br /><br />A show featuring her work opened last week and runs through March 6th. This coming Friday, the 4th, marks a reception from 5:30-7:30 to celebrate the award and her work. It is at the Open Book building at 1011 Washington Ave South.<br /><br />She does all manner of fine art press. Broadsides, limited edition printings and some art books. She teaches classes at both the MN Center For Book Arts and at Augsburg. She runs <a href="http://www.cedarfencepress.com/index2.htm">Cedar Fence Press</a> and once gave me the honor of taking a tour of her in-home studio.<br /><br />If you want see her work please stop by the reception or exhibit during its run. She will also receive her award at the 23rd annual MN Book Awards on April 16th. Tickets can be purchased <a href="http://www.thefriends.org/programs/mnbookawards/mba_gala.html#tickets">here</a>.<br /><br />We have a broadside of William Stafford's "You Reading This, Be Ready" in the store. I bought it before I had ever heard of or met this kind woman. She's a gem and we are so happy her work is receiving some much deserved attention.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-3371664082234660983?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-21173056778581754462011-01-20T16:29:00.004-06:002011-01-20T17:05:53.184-06:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_hNbEENammy0/TTi_c8zFa2I/AAAAAAAAAM8/AqnKsyHdoH8/s1600/front_gryphonselected.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 140px; height: 207px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_hNbEENammy0/TTi_c8zFa2I/AAAAAAAAAM8/AqnKsyHdoH8/s320/front_gryphonselected.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5564407843693882210" /></a><br />A week from tomorrow, 1/28/11, we'll be hosting <a href="http://www.charlesbaxter.com/">Charles Baxter</a> in the store at 7 p.m. Baxter is hard to classify in one simple way. He's a novelist and short story writer of wide renown. He's also a professor and critic who, for my money, wrote the most <a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/sep/30/his-glory-and-his-curse/">thoughtful</a> look at Jonathan Franzen's "Freedom" that I've yet seen. He writes on writing and is the series editor, and a contributor, for <a href="http://www.graywolfpress.org/component/page,shop.flypage/product_id,231/category_id,bf8108ff1901b3e2f2376627dd7f8c0d/option,com_phpshop/">Graywolf Press.</a><br /><br />"Gryphon" is his newly released book and it contains 23 stories--seven of which are brand new. It was recently <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/16/books/review/Oates-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1">reviewed</a> by Joyce Carol Oates and it was a great review, if in her own slanted way.<br /><br />Baxter is a mentor to countless young writers and represents the Midwest very well with all he does in support of books and writing.<br /><br />It should be a great event with lots of folks here so do plan to come a bit early or be prepared to stand.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-2117305677858175446?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-74914993070144033342011-01-12T17:57:00.006-06:002011-01-13T16:43:54.092-06:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_hNbEENammy0/TS9-7wGQ31I/AAAAAAAAAM0/P98PFmk2AXg/s1600/tigerbookcover_shadow.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 133px; height: 200px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_hNbEENammy0/TS9-7wGQ31I/AAAAAAAAAM0/P98PFmk2AXg/s200/tigerbookcover_shadow.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5561803629814406994" /></a><br />This is different than succeed. And that's for a different post, I believe. Like any business, large or small, it takes an army of people to make an operation run smoothly. Or even a little shakily, some days. Because the reality is that there are so many ways for things to get screwed up. Some our fault. Some others. Sometimes with no one or thing to blame. This time of year Mother Nature can change even the most well considered plans. A shipment can be delayed not due to severe weather in MN. The routing from a publisher or wholesaler can get set back a few days. Or boxes can get sent to the wrong store. Though, to be fair, that has happened a lot less frequently than it did a few years back when there was a Micawber's in Princeton, NJ. We got each others' shipments with enough regularity that it became my default first thought when a box was late or missing.<br /><br />So what, or whom, makes us go? Here is a list in brief as it's something I've been thinking about over the last month or so.<br /><br />Our FedEx and UPS drivers do ridiculous work. All year long they lug boxes and must be careful not to throw them around and damage everything. It's long and mostly thankless work. Throw in icy streets, holiday deadlines and increased volume and the job is only more difficult. <br /><br />I've spoken before about some of our sales reps and the only problem in doing so is the good ones I leave out. Steve Horwitz, of<a href="http://www.abrahamassociatesinc.com"> Abraham Associates</a>, just sent us an e-mail letting us know about how he had helped our order qualify for a better price. His knowledge not only about his book list, which is extensive, but about our store and its customers is a great help to us. This type of sales group, which represents a large range of independent publishers, is under as much pressure as anyone in the business. Steve and his co-workers do it best. <br /><br />Cole Becker, just recently retired from Random House, did both myself and Micawber's a great service by introducing me to John Vaillant's enthralling "The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival" very early in the game. When Cole was passionate about a book he could bring its essence into just a few powerful sentences. It was crystalized. I read the book immediately and was crazy about and have said, ad nauseam, that it's the best non-fiction I've read in the past five years. I've made my mom read it, friends read it and countless customers. Through another publishing friend I even got a signed copy from the author--thanks Dan C. from W.W. Norton! The path to any small store selling lots of copies of a book is very rarely that a bookseller just picks up a book and handsells it like mad. There are often others in the pipeline.<br /><br />Bill Roth is a long-time friend and customer of the store. He is also the local Ingram Book Company rep. Ingram is one of the two main national wholesalers. They are the important middle-men to stores getting re-orders or special orders in quickly. We use Ingram at a pretty high volume and with that comes some problems or questions. Bill, without fail, gets back to us promptly. He e-mails us with answers about specific books. He calls from far-flung locales when he's on the road. He is an employee of Ingram but he's an active agent for his accounts. Working on our behalf to make the wheels squeak a bit less. He's a gentleman and absolutely reliable.<br /><br />Finally, one new piece was thrown in this year. On December 11th, when we were hit with our biggest storm of the year, there was a guy outside the store who helped people shovel out for the entire day. A few days later I saw him, and a few other guys, with shovels and picks and one lone snow-blower. It turns out that this man is Lane Anderson and he's in charge of the snow removal crew working on Milton Square(where Micawber's resides). Lane is friendly and and tireless. There have been many nights this winter when he's been here as I left for the evening and was here again when I arrived the next morning. He loves Bukowski and smokes cigars and has a certain zen calm despite, literally, working in the storm more often than not. If you're a local and in need of snow removal please contact me and I'll put you in touch with Lane.<br /><br />Of course, this is just one little group, and tomorrow I could come up with another. This behind the scenes group enables us to keep one foot moving in front of the other. We salute you.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-7491499307014403334?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-38259017564442320282011-01-12T17:18:00.002-06:002011-01-12T17:35:59.215-06:00"Cleopatra" by Stacy Schiff(Little Brown and Co.)<br />"The Fighting Temeraire" by Sam Willis(Pegasus Books) for fans of Patrick O'Brian<br />"The Warmth of Other Suns" by Isabel Wilkerson(Random House)<br />"Last Call" by Daniel Okrent(Scribner Book Company)<br />"Wicked River" by Lee Sandlin(Pantheon Books)<br />"Empire of the Summer Moon" by S.C. Gwynne(Scribner)<br />"Operation Mincemeat" by Ben Macintyre(Crown Publishing Group)<br />"The Korean War: A History" by Bruce Cumings(Modern Library)<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-3825901756444232028?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-15947754926889192010-12-31T14:01:00.003-06:002010-12-31T14:58:48.208-06:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_hNbEENammy0/TR5EAU-ZE4I/AAAAAAAAAMc/i3gbhxyQd5c/s1600/atlas_of_remote_islands_inside.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 282px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_hNbEENammy0/TR5EAU-ZE4I/AAAAAAAAAMc/i3gbhxyQd5c/s320/atlas_of_remote_islands_inside.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5556953762642858882" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_hNbEENammy0/TR5D8ORrOMI/AAAAAAAAAMU/1Cnj2sC_pB0/s1600/atlas_of_remote_islands_cover.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 232px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_hNbEENammy0/TR5D8ORrOMI/AAAAAAAAAMU/1Cnj2sC_pB0/s320/atlas_of_remote_islands_cover.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5556953692125214914" /></a><br />The last few weeks have been very busy and that's been fun and fulfilling and a little helter-skelter. So something had to fall of my to-do list and it was finishing these lists. I will end the year with one and finish with a history list from Tom and some kids lists from Dara--our kids buyer extraordinaire.<br /><br />The quirks and oddballs list<br /><br />"The Native Trees of Canada" by Leanne Shapton(Drawn and Quarterly)<br />"Infinite City" by Rebecca Solnit(University of California Press)<br />"Aaaaw to Zzzzzd: The Words of Birds" by John Bevis(MIT Press)<br />"One Hundred Portraits" by Barry Moser(David R. Godine Publisher)<br />"The Man Who Loved Books Too Much" by Allison Hoover Bartlett(Riverhead Books)<br />"FreeDarko Presents the Undisputed Guide to Pro Basketball History"(Bloomsbury)<br />"X'ed Out" by Charles Burns(Pantheon)<br />"The Atlas of Remote Islands" by Judith Schalansky(Penguin)<br />"The Book of 'Unnecessary' Quotation Marks" by Bethany Keeley(Chronicle Books)<br />"Moby Dick" by Jens Hoffmann(Cca Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts)<br /><br />It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of this kind of stuff. Visually attractive, smart and outside the main scope of what sells. <br /><br />As I get set to close the store in about half an hour and close the books on another year of adventure in books for us, it's only fair to say thank you. Thank you to those of you who are customers and help support us. Thanks to the publishing folk who sell us and educate us about books. There are no finer people to fight the good fight with. And to those of you who are friends of the store or who check out the blog we appreciate that interest as well.<br /><br />See you in 2011.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-1594775492688919?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-51826324103017570002010-12-21T09:13:00.003-06:002010-12-21T09:49:30.446-06:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_hNbEENammy0/TRDIuiaIohI/AAAAAAAAAMI/5QvE0ku07H4/s1600/halfalife.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 205px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_hNbEENammy0/TRDIuiaIohI/AAAAAAAAAMI/5QvE0ku07H4/s320/halfalife.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5553159042383782418" /></a><br />"Happy" by Alex Lemon(Simon and Schuster)<br />"Long Way Home" by Bill Barich(Walker and Co.)<br />"Blood-Dark Track" by Joseph O'Neill(Random House)<br />"News To Me" by Laurie Hertzel(University of Minnesota Press)<br />"Half a Life" by Darin Strauss(McSweeney's Books)<br />"The Routes of Man" by Ted Conover(Random House)<br />"Florence: A Map of Perceptions" by Andrea Ponsi(University of Virginia Press)<br />"A Week at the Airport" by Alain de Botton(Random House)<br />"Technological Slavery: The Collected Writings of Theodore J. Kacznski"(Feral House)<br />"Ghostbread" by Sonja Livingston(University of Georgia Press)<br /><br />Two things to note from this list. Regarding the book of essays by the Unabomber, he received no compensation. A portion of all proceeds from the book went to the American Red Cross. Second, all three of the collections that I chose written by women were published by University Presses. I don't know what that means for certain.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-5182632410301757000?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-23068963437643644602010-12-19T16:07:00.003-06:002010-12-19T16:29:50.069-06:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_hNbEENammy0/TQ6HVyu0jSI/AAAAAAAAAMA/Wx2-oTeOTQc/s1600/canalhouse.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 237px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_hNbEENammy0/TQ6HVyu0jSI/AAAAAAAAAMA/Wx2-oTeOTQc/s320/canalhouse.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5552524199059557666" /></a><br /><br />"Oaxaca al Gusto" by Diana Kennedy(University of Texas Press)<br />"Shefzilla" by Stewart Woodman(Borealis Books)<br />"I Love Macarons" by Hisako Ogita(Chronicle Books)<br />"The Geometry of Pasta" by Caz Hildebrand and Jacob Kennedy(Quirk)<br />"My Calabria" by Rosetta Costantino(W.W. Norton)<br />"One Big Table" by Molly O'Neill(Simon and Schuster)<br />"Essential New York Times Cookbook:Classic Recipes For a New Century by Amanda Hesser(W.W. Norton)<br />"Keys to Good Cooking" by Harold McGee(Penguin Press)<br />"Canal House Cooking Volume 5" This is actually a magazine done in book format and each issue is a treasure.<br />"The Vegetarian Option" by Simon Hopkinson(Stewart, Tabori&Chang<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-2306896343764364460?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-90494724001096829312010-12-16T18:17:00.000-06:002010-12-16T18:18:10.360-06:00We will be open 10-3 on 12/24 and 12/31. <br /><br />We will be closed 12/25, 1/1 and 1/2 for store inventory.<br /><br />Thanks.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-9049472400109682931?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-9762024882700644862010-12-16T16:55:00.002-06:002010-12-16T17:11:46.857-06:00"Lament For the Makers" W.S. Merwin, editor.(Counterpoint)<br />"Low Down and Coming On" James Lenfesty, editor. (Red Dragonfly Press)<br />"One With Others" C.D. Wright(Copper Canyon Press)<br />"Mean Free Path" Ben Lerner(Copper Canyon Press)<br />"10 Mississippi" Steve Healey(Coffee House Press)<br />"Phantom Noise" Brian Turner(Alice James Books)<br />"Holding Company" Major Jackson(W.W. Norton)<br />"Warhorses" Yusef Komunyakaa(FSG)<br />"Working Words" M.L. Liebler, editor.(Coffee House Press)<br />"Sharks in the Rivers" Ada Limon(Milkweed Editions)<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-976202488270064486?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-51950649179801426412010-12-14T16:36:00.002-06:002010-12-14T16:59:41.304-06:00I decided to switch it up a little this year. I'm doing lists of 10 but it isn't necessarily Top 10 in order--those kind of things bother me a little because it's really splitting hairs at a certain point.<br /><br />So here are ten books of fiction I found to be thought-provoking or important to me. In no order.<br /><br />"In a Strange Room" by Damon Galgut(Europa Editions)<br />"Lord of Misrule" by Jaimy Gordon(McPherson)<br />"Gold Boy, Emerald Girl" by Yiyun Li(Random House)<br />"The Instructions" by Adam Levin(Mcsweeney's)<br />"February" by Lisa Moore(Black Cat)<br />"Dogfight, a Love Story" by Matt Burgess(Random House)<br />"Vestments" by John Reimringer(Milkweed Editions)<br />"What is Left the Daughter" by Howard Norman(Houghton Mifflin)<br />"Under This Unbroken Sky" by Shandi Mitchell(Harper)<br />"Lightning" by Fred Stenson(Douglas&McIntyre)<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-5195064917980142641?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-62378602807798673012010-12-10T16:54:00.002-06:002010-12-10T17:06:49.754-06:00It's been a busy Friday and with a massive snowstorm(maybe) approaching, all I can put together is some quick but worthwhile notes. My lists of ten in various categories will be getting posted next week starting on Monday. Fiction will bat lead-off.<br /><br />*Keith Hollihan is reading here on the 15th at 7 p.m. Check <a href="http://minnesota.publicradio.org/collections/special/columns/state-of-the-arts/archive/2010/12/keith-hollihans-fame-spreads-in-unusual-ways.shtml">this</a> out.<br /><br />*Here's a <a href="http://www.examiner.com/books-in-minneapolis/micawber-s-books-everyone-s-neighborhood-booktore">little feature</a> on the store that was posted this week.<br /><br />*I am blatantly stealing this quote from our good friends in New York City at Three Lives and Co. They have a fantastic store and in their December e-mail to customers they included a line from Patti Smith when she was accepting her National Book Award. She said,"Please, no matter how we advance technologically, please don't abandon the book.There is nothing in our material world more beautiful than the book." Hurray for Patti Smith.<br /><br />*Speaking of hurray, huge congrats to Graywolf Press. They will <a href="http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/books/111569649.html">publish</a> Liu Xiaobo in English.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-6237860280779867301?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-90180131113088732702010-12-02T06:59:00.003-06:002010-12-02T07:42:45.533-06:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_hNbEENammy0/TPeiOqquQMI/AAAAAAAAALw/u54LwZHS_rE/s1600/hollihan.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 174px; height: 258px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_hNbEENammy0/TPeiOqquQMI/AAAAAAAAALw/u54LwZHS_rE/s320/hollihan.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5546079838985404610" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_hNbEENammy0/TPeiCljN12I/AAAAAAAAALo/U4vRFUexnj0/s1600/percy.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 124px; height: 186px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_hNbEENammy0/TPeiCljN12I/AAAAAAAAALo/U4vRFUexnj0/s320/percy.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5546079631453312866" /></a><br />The trend of chick-lit with its bubble-gum covers seems to have passed. And while I am usually hesitant to label most novels as his/her books, I am noticing a new trend. There is a new wave of young men writing novels that are, for lack of a better term, very masculine. It would be too easy to link these books to Hemingway or Raymond Carver. Yet that is what happens.<br /><br />Benjamin Percy created some waves a few years back with the release of his short story collection "Refresh, Refresh" which was a raw and well-honed grouping of work. He read at Micawber's and his made for radio bass voice only contributed to the manliness. His new novel "The Wilding" is a look at fathers and sons and hunting and living in wilderness. “Benjamin Percy’s The Wilding is a tour de force meditation and treatise on the nature of violence, the violence of nature, man in the wild, and the wild in man—cleverly disguised as a page-turning adventure. Not just a ‘must’ read, but a need read, this book is timely, terrifying, terrific.” <br />—ANTONYA NELSON <br /><br />I half-joked with Erin Kottke of Graywolf a week back that they were creating quite the stable of these new writers. Yet, it's true. In March of 2011 they will release a collection of stories by Alan Heathcock entitled "Volt" that seem to be wayward cousins of Percy's writing. All set in an unnamed locale, these are also stories that grab you and shake you and, ultimately, remind you that violence and tenderness are not mutually exclusive.<br /><br />It's possible that the success of Cormac McCarthy, in film and books(again), has led to this. Or it could be something else entirely. Creston Lea, Keith Hollihan and Donald Ray Pollock are three other writers with new books I would add to this group. While not written for men alone, there is a high charge of testosterone running through the work that cannot be denied.<br /><br />Ben Percy will be reading at the store on Monday December 6th at 7 p.m. and Keith Hollihan will read from his debut novel on Wednesday the 15th at 7 p.m. "The Four Stages of Cruelty" is a stunner of a book filled with moral questions and answers.<br /><br />Please do join us for both--you will not be disappointed.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-9018013111308873270?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-44113917785476935402010-11-13T10:50:00.001-06:002010-11-13T10:52:09.967-06:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_hNbEENammy0/TN7CM1dnkNI/AAAAAAAAALg/DLFeus6uKDQ/s1600/snow.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 206px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_hNbEENammy0/TN7CM1dnkNI/AAAAAAAAALg/DLFeus6uKDQ/s320/snow.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5539078117477814482" /></a><br />The Snow Man <br />by Wallace Stevens<br /><br />One must have a mind of winter<br />To regard the frost and the boughs<br />Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;<br /><br />And have been cold a long time<br />To behold the junipers shagged with ice,<br />The spruces rough in the distant glitter<br /><br />Of the January sun; and not to think<br />Of any misery in the sound of the wind,<br />In the sound of a few leaves,<br /><br />Which is the sound of the land<br />Full of the same wind<br />That is blowing in the same bare place<br /><br />For the listener, who listens in the snow,<br />And, nothing himself, beholds<br />Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-4411391778547693540?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-50487046662192474932010-11-06T11:28:00.000-05:002010-11-06T11:30:19.461-05:00This is a great, but long, article on what every indie bookstore should aspire to be.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/articles/39974/politics-and-proses-social-network/">http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/articles/39974/politics-and-proses-social-network/</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-5048704666219247493?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-1458935951303903172010-10-26T15:12:00.002-05:002010-10-26T15:19:59.734-05:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_hNbEENammy0/TMc35OtWBvI/AAAAAAAAALQ/bApSi9bMces/s1600/lisbeth.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_hNbEENammy0/TMc35OtWBvI/AAAAAAAAALQ/bApSi9bMces/s320/lisbeth.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532452123588298482" /></a><br />We just received a box of goodies from the good people at Knopf and inside, along with a Ha Jin book and a nice copy of Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian", were some Lisbeth Salander trinkets. We got some temporary tattoos, a few "Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" themed drink ideas and WWLD? bracelets which are featured here on my wrists. We also got some Swedish fish. We'll be handing the stuff out to Lisbeth fans until the supplies are gone.<br /><br /><br />Photo credit goes to Casey Peterson. Taken on Tom's iphone.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-145893595130390317?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-66987667934327064492010-10-26T14:38:00.006-05:002010-10-26T16:16:24.582-05:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_hNbEENammy0/TMdEbcrg90I/AAAAAAAAALY/ce0Im1s-ULI/s1600/cheese.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 232px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_hNbEENammy0/TMdEbcrg90I/AAAAAAAAALY/ce0Im1s-ULI/s320/cheese.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532465905593808706" /></a><br />I can't quite decide if certain book trends are like fashion in that everything old is new again or if it's more like the current fascination with knitting/crochet and things skip a generation. Whatever <span style="font-style:italic;"></span><span style="font-style:italic;">it</span><span style="font-style:italic;"></span> is, it is being shown in publishing trends. Books on beekeeping, canning, local and/or organic food, slow-cookery and all manner of 'green' living have been popular for a few years now. So much so that we finally decided that these books didn't really fit best in our Cookbooks, Current Affairs or Nature sections. So we have a new Sustainability section. It is a lot like Cultural Studies in that it is a mixed bag. <br /><br />The interesting question, to me, is what caused this surge in interest? Was the recession(over? almost over? in the middle?)the tipping point that forced a large percentage of people to re-think their monthly costs and how they shopped and consumed both goods and food? Is the Do-It-Yourself movement simply a part of that or a larger desire for people to be more connected to their homes and the items within? Is it part of a fad trending all things Americana: music, fashion, design, etc. I'm no cultural anthropologist, but it seems to be some combo of all of the above.<br /><br />So our new section combines elements of all these categories and it happily combines some new, young, voices with older, respected, ones like Wendell Berry and Wes Jackson. <br /><br />Yes, we have sold several copies of the cheese book. Skyhorse Publishing has a nice series of self-sufficiency books for $12.95 in hardcover. You don't have to make too many pounds of cheese to get that kind of money back.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-6698766793432706449?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-47282737409631197292010-10-14T11:00:00.003-05:002010-10-18T17:22:16.847-05:00On October 12th we hosted an event that was a benefit for the Jeremiah Program which is a local program that provides services for single mothers looking to better their lives. I encourage people to take a look at their <a href="http://www.jeremiahprogram.org/">website</a> for more information.<br /><br />We had desserts donated by Lesley Powers who caters events and sells her wonderful granola at several local retailers under the brand name Bliss.<br /><br />And I briefly discussed 15 books we're excited about this Fall. Here's the list--<br /><br />Homer and Langley by E.L. Doctorow<br />Room by Emma Donoghue<br />The Sky Below by Stacey D'Erasmo<br />The Balcony of Europe by Aidan Higgins<br />The Quickening by Michelle Hoover<br />The Report by Jessica Frances Kane<br />All the Living by C.E. Morgan<br />One Day by David Nicholls <br />The Mountain Lion by Jean Stafford<br />Going Blind by Mara Faulkner, OSB.<br />River House by Sarahlee Lawrence <br />A Paradise Built in Hell by Rebecca Solnit<br />The Tiger by John Vaillant<br />The Geometry of Pasta by Caz Hildrebrand and Jacob Kennedy<br />Atlas of Remote Islands by Judith Schalansky<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-4728273740963119729?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-41636157275453000302010-10-05T15:16:00.004-05:002010-10-05T15:50:06.412-05:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_hNbEENammy0/TKuPNykaJBI/AAAAAAAAALI/OVtN7Gan7e4/s1600/hardcover.jpeg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 181px; height: 279px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_hNbEENammy0/TKuPNykaJBI/AAAAAAAAALI/OVtN7Gan7e4/s320/hardcover.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5524666834975597586" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_hNbEENammy0/TKuPEah5IOI/AAAAAAAAALA/1s5ZzLV8qic/s1600/paperback.jpeg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 180px; height: 280px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_hNbEENammy0/TKuPEah5IOI/AAAAAAAAALA/1s5ZzLV8qic/s320/paperback.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5524666673903771874" /></a><br />Lots of fiction readers are dealing with a problem that booksellers face on a regular basis: how to read a book that is talked about constantly? I've heard from several customers that they can't read the Franzen book right now. There's simply been too much chatter from lovers/haters. <br /><br />It is difficult to read something without hearing all the voices--which is the biggest reason I've never read "The Kite Runner" or "The Lovely Bones" or "The Elegance of the Hedgehog". It isn't snobbery. I've simply heard too much about all of them to read them fairly.<br /><br />All of that is really just prologue to my actual point. Which is that I was thrilled when I got into the store today and saw Joseph O'Neill's "Blood-Dark Track" sitting on the paperback table. O'Neill is the author of the much ballyhooed novel "Netherland". President Obama loved it, every major book review loved it, your book club probably loved it. Me? I thought it was fine. Maybe it was the cricket. Maybe not. I kept waiting and waiting for that aha moment and it never came. Had I heard it was brilliant too many times? However, his earlier memoir about his two grandfathers is the real deal. It <span style="font-style:italic;"></span> <span style="font-style:italic;"></span>is brilliant. I love it. Love it so much, in fact, that I paid way more than I normally do for any book to get a hardcover copy when it was out of print. <br /><br />Both of his grandfathers, one Irish and one Turkish, were imprisoned during WWII for suspected subversion. On the one hand it is a great family history. And on the other it's a great look at two different cultures during world war. I am so pleased to be able to sell this book. And if you want "Netherland" that's great too.<br /><br />Want another skip the famous book but read the previous one? Elizabeth Gilbert, pre-insane fame, wrote a fantastic book entitled "The Last American Man". That book is a joy.<br /><br />Final thanks must go to local book wizard Jay Peterson, of Magers and Quinn, for obtaining the out-of-print book for me. <br /><br />The cover with the young boy is the newer one, fyi.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-4163615727545300030?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-37974504513862631382010-09-28T11:14:00.002-05:002010-09-28T11:33:25.314-05:00Just a note to let people know that we have some signed copies of Petterson's "I Curse The River of Time" and some very nice signed broadsides printed by Vandalia Street Press from the new novel for $20.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-3797450451386263138?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-43285780595724808382010-09-18T16:15:00.006-05:002010-09-18T16:36:32.392-05:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_hNbEENammy0/TJUsNqVfltI/AAAAAAAAAK4/om7USFWbHc4/s1600/tramping.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 226px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_hNbEENammy0/TJUsNqVfltI/AAAAAAAAAK4/om7USFWbHc4/s320/tramping.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518365531626772178" /></a><br /><br /><br />when it is something completely different. And what Ben Weaver has planned for the next few weeks is something to take a look at. Ben is a local artist-at-large; or, at least, that's what I've taken to calling him. He's been a locally, nationally and internationally known singer for years now and this new endeavor he's set up is to coincide with the release of his new cd <span style="font-weight:bold;"></span><span style="font-weight:bold;">Mirepoix and Smoke</span>. <span style="font-weight:bold;"></span> Over the past few years he's also released two chapbooks of poetry "Hand Me Downs Can Be Haunted" and "The Talking Comes Later". He's also brought himself back into the local food world--most recently cooking at Corner Table and The Craftsman.<br /><br />To celebrate all of this he has curated a multidisciplinary three-show residency at the Bryant Lake Bowl entitled <span style="font-style:italic;">Tramping With The Pioneers</span><span style="font-style:italic;"></span>. On 9/23@7 p.m. 'Food' is the focus. On 10/8@10 p.m. 'Music' is the focus with the release of the new album. And the middle event, on 9/30@7 p.m. 'Words' are the focus and that's where we come in. That night Ben will read from and play from his own work but he's asked some local literary friends to read with him. Jonathan Miles, author of the hilarious novel "Dear American Airlines" will read as will local poets Lightsey Darst, Dobby Gibson and Juliet Patterson. We will be there selling all of their work.<br /><br />More info on the full line-ups for his other events can be found <a href="http://www.benweaver.net/">here</a> and info regarding tickets and all other events at BLB can be found at their <a href="http://www.bryantlakebowl.com/">website</a>.<br /><br />Over the last seven years here at Micawber's I've been lucky to get to know Ben as a customer and then as a friend. I hope this great trio of events gets the attention I know that it deserves.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-4328578059572480838?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-11778897590260265022010-09-03T14:10:00.004-05:002010-09-03T14:37:46.478-05:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_hNbEENammy0/TIFM40KsVTI/AAAAAAAAAKw/fpAufA7BOkA/s1600/Vestments_Cover.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 250px; height: 339px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_hNbEENammy0/TIFM40KsVTI/AAAAAAAAAKw/fpAufA7BOkA/s400/Vestments_Cover.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5512771957838075186" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_hNbEENammy0/TIFImRU8eQI/AAAAAAAAAKo/oxJlRsT2kRU/s1600/freedom.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_hNbEENammy0/TIFImRU8eQI/AAAAAAAAAKo/oxJlRsT2kRU/s400/freedom.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5512767241201678594" /></a><br /><br /><br />Jonathan Franzen is the novelist who is either madly loved or hated right now. Other novelists are upset by the amount of attention his new novel "Freedom" is receiving. He is one of only two novelists to ever be featured on the cover of <span style="font-weight:bold;">TIME</span> magazine and there are reviews in print and on-line all over the place. So I'm not going to review the book other than to say that people who loved "The Corrections" will feel similarly and those who didn't like it will also feel the same. The most recent novel is set, mostly, in Minnesota and St. Paul in large part. He will be kicking off the Fall season of Talking Volumes at the Fitzgerald Theater--though the event is already sold out.<br /><br /><br />Alas, not every quality novelist can be featured on the cover of magazines with massive circulation numbers and fancy, glossy, covers. St. Paul's own John Reimringer also has a novel just published that is set, mostly, here in our fine capital city. Next Friday, the 10th, at 7 p.m. Reimringer will be having the launch event for his book in the store. We're very exicted for this event and anticipate a large crowd so be ready to jostle for space if you're coming. A few years ago John read here for an event with Milkweed about their anthology "Fiction on a Stick: Stories by Writers From Minnesota" and the story he read from is entitled 'Betty Garcia.' She is one of the main characters in his novel "Vestments". So we're bringing this whole thing full circle and couldn't be happier to be involved in two great events for books set in this city we so love.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-1177889759026026502?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-81298039413626304972010-08-21T12:04:00.004-05:002010-08-21T12:08:36.908-05:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_hNbEENammy0/THAIBjThc-I/AAAAAAAAAKY/z-L4nMmTOgc/s1600/IMG_4287.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_hNbEENammy0/THAIBjThc-I/AAAAAAAAAKY/z-L4nMmTOgc/s400/IMG_4287.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5507911167024133090" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_hNbEENammy0/THAH5GD9OsI/AAAAAAAAAKQ/HoUvVoqf-jk/s1600/IMG_4266.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_hNbEENammy0/THAH5GD9OsI/AAAAAAAAAKQ/HoUvVoqf-jk/s400/IMG_4266.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5507911021735262914" /></a><br />There are oodles and oodles of bookstores housed in cool places. Old banks, Victorian houses, riverboats. You name it. My sister-in-law just sent me some pictures of a store she was at in Buenos Aires in an old theater that was renovated about 10 years ago. This place looks like trouble in a very good way.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-8129803941362630497?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-73568489323750028552010-08-12T14:45:00.002-05:002010-08-12T14:56:31.748-05:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_hNbEENammy0/TGRR1Z-tfFI/AAAAAAAAAKI/EtTZfiIG0YA/s1600/field+notes.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_hNbEENammy0/TGRR1Z-tfFI/AAAAAAAAAKI/EtTZfiIG0YA/s400/field+notes.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5504614622502419538" /></a><br />My previous post was all about books. I said we carry few items other than books. Today, however, we got in a new line of journals from the good people at <a href="http://fieldnotesbrand.com/">Field Notes</a>. They have a variety of lined, blank and ruled journals. They also have a new line of 'County Fair' editions for each and every state. Currently we only carry the MN edition. Each notebook has state facts and trivia and comes in a pack of three for $10.<br /><br />From these little notebooks I've learned that MN has 87 counties. Tenney is the smallest town with a population of six. Eagle Mtn. is our highest point at 2,301 feet.<br /><br />The three-packs come in a sharp combo of blue, red and yellow.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-7356848932375002855?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738347264016239879.post-29324560542406734512010-08-12T10:26:00.002-05:002010-08-12T13:07:10.204-05:00There are days when it feels like what we're doing at Micawber's is an anachronism. We sell books and that is pretty much it. Sure, we carry some cards and magazines and blank journals. We don't sell reading glasses or stuffed animals or any other kind of sideline--all of which are markets that many small bookstores have made work for them over the past 20-30 years. The discount is often better on non-book items and if it works it works. But it simply wasn't something any of us were interested in doing.<br /><br />From major media to industry publications to literary blogs the chatter is comprised largely, of late, about e-readers and electronic media and new ways to bring in revenue for publishers and bookstores. And while I don't thumb my nose at the Kindle/Nook/Ipad devices, it seems to me to be something best left to other to worry about. Just yesterday I read a very interesting <a href="http://booksquare.com/the-glamorous-life-notes-from-the-indie-trenches-part-two/">piece</a> about indie publishing. Like a lot of other industries, the book world is filled with subterfuge, evasiveness and blatant lies when it comes to what is actually selling. Publishers will say they are printing X number of copies of a book when it is actually Y. Bookstores will say they've sold twice as many copies of a book than they actually have. It's part of a larger disease--we all want to seem important and are willing to juke the numbers to make it seem so.<br /><br />Over the course of time, I've taken a hard-line approach to this. When people ask about numbers of sales or attendance at an event I go with the truth. It's disappointing, at times, to certain people but it keeps things on the level. The craziest statistic, to me, from that post was the fact that the indie presses stated that 90% of their sales still come from brick and mortar stores. Even I was astounded by that figure.<br /><br />But it cemented for me the idea that real bookstores can still help individual books and their sales. Convenience and price can be had on-line or electronically and there is something to be said for that. Yet the small press, the true defender of the new idea or the avant garde or the book that won't sell 50,000 copies but is important nonetheless still depends on stores to sell books. I found that heartening.<br /><br />So, is the paper book dying? Maybe. But we still have customers from 10-20 and 20-30 who say they want books. And we still have E-Book users who also want paper books. The real answers to the book industry problems are in flux and unknown to even those of us in the industry. Time shall tell.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3738347264016239879-2932456054240673451?l=micawbers.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>micawber'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16978812467040376059noreply@blogger.com0