Someone pissed me off yesterday and I am tempted to write about it. But it seems so counterproductive. In fact, I’m more interested in why I invested emotion into the exchange, which is staggeringly unimportant in the scheme of things, than I am in the exchange itself. But perhaps that’s a safe place for anger to go, sometimes.
Instead, now in a flight delay at BWI — I’m not complaining, when an airline wants to swap a plane out for mechanical reasons, I am all for it — I am thinking about my visits to two bookstores here, where I almost couldn’t find the book I wanted to read right now. As it sometimes happens, I analyzed my own buying habits to tune into what my “customers” do, why people pick up or don’t pick up a book.
First of all, in a physical bookstore, it’s hard to buy a book that’s not there. Neither store I browsed had my most recentl book. Bummer. I can’t even make the local authors rack at the Borders in the BWI A Terminal.
Two, I do wonder at the hand-selling I witnessed. A gentleman with a very long travel day ahead said he liked Vince Flynn. The Borders employee recommended “The Girl Who . . .” series. The recommendation felt generic to me. Besides, in hand-selling, shouldn’t booksellers recommend titles that aren’t getting a lot of attention?
At any rate, I left Borders empty-handed. The only book that tempted me was A TICKET TO THE CIRCUS, but I’m not sure why. Probably because of a good review that I read recently. And a book I pondered, the latest Sue Miller, which sounds fantastic? I didn’t buy that precisely because I hadn’t read any reviews yet. I like Miller’s work, but I was a little disappointed in the ending of THE SENATOR’S WIFE, so I was reluctant to commit to a hardcover.
Onto Hudson Booksellers, where my books are almost never stocked. Oh, Hudson, what did I do? How can I make you love me? The selection is smaller here and always quirky. Why the big push for Arthur Phillips’s THE SONG IS YOU? The new Marian Keyes would be an close-to-automatic purchase in paperback, but not hardcover. Then I saw Jennifer Haigh’s THE CONDITION and that was perfect for my mood. I loved her first novel, THE THREE MRS. KIMBALLS. (Or was it KIMBLE? You know the rules here. I don’t check something until I’ve posted and then I note my errors.)
What are you reading? And, more importantly, how did you choose to read that book right now?
I posted on FB then came over here to see what was going on. What about Bliss Broyard’s memoir about the impact of her father passing for white (basis for Roth’s The Human Stain, the book, not the movie)? Lots of New Orleans history in her book, One Drop. Her father was Anatole Broyard. He was the book critic/book reviewer/editor at the New York Times. Fascinating stuff.
Doris Ann, had I known you were at PLA I would have hunted you down to meet you-anyone that LL has dedicated a book to is a definite celebrity! And of course, Laura’s letter to librarians that the HC rep read at Book Buzz was lovely.
You are right about the abundance of riches provided by PLA. I inadvertently ended up with a copy of Life Sentences (which I already owed of course) because I had told the librarians that I was with that if they saw the new Laura Lippman at the HC booth to grab one for me even if they had to kill innocent bystanders between them and it. Unfortunately, I forgot to say that it would be an ARC and one of my fellow librarians brought back Life Sentences for me. However, it will go to a good home!
What I am reading now-ARC of The Dead Lie Down by Sophie Hannah. Next up is Innocent by Scott Turow then This Body of Death by Elizabeth George (PLA ARCs all).
Of course, the timing totally skews my response to this “What are you reading right now and why?” poll. If it weren’t immediately post PLA and I didn’t have a box full of wonders… . So what was I reading in the normal course of events prePLA? The book I read on the plane to Portland was Benny & Shrimp by Katarina Mazetti. I read it because it was highly recommended by 2 fellow librarians whose tastes usually differ. I thought that it was delightful and a perfect plane read. (The fact that Shrimp is a librarian didn’t hurt either.)
I read late into last night to finish Walter Mosley’s Known To Evil,second in his Leonid McGill/NYC line. I started on his books as Devil in a Blue Dress was headed to the theaters, wanting to fix the characters in my mind before the movie’s actors could take up residence. Encourage your friends to meet Tess before she comes to their tv.
Last Saturday was opening day of my favorite booksale, http://jmrlfriends.org/booksale ,in Charlottesville. I found copies of Mystery Train and Hickory Wind- the Gram Parsons bio- to give away, and moved on to the travel/adventure shelves. Picked up Window Seat-Reading the Landscape From the Air by Gregory Dicum ; have a window seat for our trip to Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival.Also Lyra’s Oxford by Philip Pullman which is Lyra And The Birds within; has a lovely map of Oxford U glued in. I always pick up small format books to live on the short shelf where I read and this looked and felt interesting.
Rene Freund’s On Foot to the End of the World- The Pilgrim Route to Santiago de Compostela is about a walk I once thought to take but time is getting short… All these $1 each, most are unread virgin copies. Tomorrow is half price day and the last of the donations will have found room for display so we’ll return for a couple of bags of fiction and some cds. Feeding the addiction at modest cost.
Research! Luckily I’m a fast reader. Back before my almost 2 yr. old was born; I would peruse Borders for covers or titles that caught my eye…but then would read the blurb, the beginning and if it held – a random chunk, just to be sure. Now that I’m a dedicated Kindle fan, I download samples first. Actually, before my Kindle, I would do that on Amazon, too – read the “Look Inside” sample. Since I don’t get to the bookstore much anymore, I now go through the new release areas of Borders website and also watch their author interviews or book club videos for new titles to read (I haven’t been “burned” there like the Oprah/McCarthy interview, yet). Comment section recommendations at various blogs give good suggestions, too – but I still read before I buy.
I’m on a a books-I-should’ve-read-by-now kick.
I just picked up Devil in the Blue Dress and What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. I’m almost done with the Carver book; it’s making me like short stories, again. (Short stories are very Goldilocks for me: too short and I wonder why I bothered, long and good means I want the story to be a novel.)
Sometimes I get so caught up in fast-paced books that I miss immersing myself in beautiful, moody writing.
I am so happy I asked this question!
I ended up writing on the plane, reading the New York Times and two trashy magazines during the no-electronics phases. (The new book is going. No, there’s not a missing word there. It just goes, following its own meandering little heart, meddling in its own destiny. “Let’s do plural first person in the past and then present tense for the present!” “Ha-ha, you have to throw out lots of stuff!” That kind of thing.)
I was on such a hot streak for a while there, too. But I think the problem is that the book I want to read RIGHT NOW is the new Ann Hood.
I love Rakoff’s This American Life commentaries but have yet to read his nonfiction.
I am reading AWAIT YOUR REPLY by Dan Chaon, recommended by a former student. (and it’s by an Ohio author-woot!)
Just finished Not In My Neighborhood by Antero Pietila. This is non-fiction which needs to be read by people in addition to Baltimoreans.I was drawn to it by both the subject matter and the fact that I know the author. You might think it will be dry but he is a skillful writer who kept me going. How he kept track of, and on track of, all his research is beyond me.
I was at BWI today! I was a visiting writer at Gettysburg College yesterday and took Amtrak back to New Haven today, so I basically spent the day in motion, but it was just fine because inbetween messing around with my writing I was reading Every Secret Thing, and loving it.
I am picking up Ignore Everybody, and 39 Other Keys to Creativity at the library tomorrow. It was highly recommended by a friend. I found myself in an independent bookstore a while back. Thinking I should take my business to them and not to the chains when I can, I asked for two books I’d planned to read that would be in paperback then. “Oh,” said the staff, almost holding their noses. “Those are MASS MARKET, aren’t they?” They didn’t have them, and apparently didn’t want to. I thought that attitude was unnecessary, and gave up the idea of taking my business to them.
I’m reading Alison Weir’s newest Anne Boleyn bio: The Lady in the Tower. I’ve had it for a while, but I hadn’t wanted to start it right after reading Wolf Hall. Now, after reading a couple of books that disappointed me, sadly because I had high expectations, I have felt the pull to read some nonfiction and go back to Anne.
It might make you feel good to know that the new softcover of “Life Sentences” was featured prominently at my local Costco. Don’t laugh. There are always book buyers there eagerly pouring over the piles (and saving a couple of bucks at the same time).
Unfortunately, it does not surprise me at all that some (if not many) of the people who work at bookstores do not have a wide knowledge of the books that they sell.
–Marjorie
I’ve been sorely disappointed in bookstores lately. My favorite, an independant, is driving me to Amazon. I counted two shelves dedicated to Nicholas Sparks and not a single Martin Amis to be found.
I’ve had Vidal’s “Lincoln” on my shelf for a couple of decades now and just recently picked it up because I wanted something long and well written…is that too much to ask? Apparently. Judging from the bookmark I found in it, I did try to read it when I bought it but fell short. This time, I’ll finish.
I know what you mean about being disappointed by Miller’s ending…..I felt snookered at the end of Chris Bohjalian’s new one.
Right now I’m reading the newest Denise Swanson “Scumble River” mystery, Ted Kennedy’s “True Compass”, “And Ladies of the Club” during periods of unavoidable delay when I’m in the car and Elswyth Thane’s “Yankee Stranger” at bedtime. My recently departed houseguest forgot to bring a book with her and was encouraged to read What the Dead Know. She said that she couldn’t leave until she finished it. I pointed out that the best mystery bookstore in Minneapolis; Once Upon a Crime stocks it and within walking distance of her house.
I must admit, that I was lucky enough to be at the Public Library Assoc. conference in Portland, Or. My books, which I had sent from PLA and, of course, Powell’s Book store came. What an “embarassment of riches.” Okay, Laura’s Life Sentence was one of the books being given away…and they went quickly, but I already bought it and read it. But I had ARCs of Alexandra Sokoloff’s new books and the new Elizabeth George. I picked Alex’s book…because I know her and like her. It is seriously creepy, but I’m loving it. But when asked about my favorite contemporary author, it’s LL, hands down. My sister-in-law had somebody working for her….in Ohio, btw for whom Laura is a goddess. She said she gained so much “cred” because her s-in-law had actually “met” Laura.
I told her to tell her employee that I actually drove from Omaha to S.D. with Laura….and couldn’t find a Dairy Queen. <g>
It seemed like a good time to read Philip Roth, so I’ve re-read “Goodbye Columbus,” which I liked, but not quite as much as the first time I read it in ’59.
Right now I’m reading “Exit Ghost,” just finished “Everyman” yesterday, and “Ghost Writer” the day before. Next will be “American Pastoral.” Then will take a break from Roth with some Edna O’Brien books, (read in a magazine that Joyce Carol Oates thinks she’s a wonderful writer…a good recommendation),but first will read Henry Roth’s “Mercy of a Rude Stream”, (it was right next to the Philip Roth books) which I just had to check out of the library since I loved his “Call it Sleep.” I often re-read stories I like, and my friends, knowing my passion for books, are always recommending authors and books, so that’s another way I choose what to read.
I just finished Paul Theroux’s “Ghost Train to the Eastern Star” and immediately launched into Crumley’s “Dancing Bear.” I find it quite rare that the big bookstore chains carry the stuff I’m after. I usually find the books I want, then have my local indie bookstore order it in for me, or get it direct from the publisher (if it is a small house that offers that), or I order it from another indie bookstore (for example, I just received a couple Megan Abbott books from Murder By the Book in Houston). I avoid the big chains, Amazon, etc. for books, though I do use Amazon for the occasional hard to find DVD or something.
I love bookstores, but I can’t afford to buy books anymore. So I use the library. I can “order” my book in advance and they usually get enough of the popular titles so that I don’t have to wait. If it’s a more literary novel, I seldom have to wait, sad to say! I just finished Ian Rankin’s latest book, a stand alone, not a Rebus, about an art heist. It was excellent. Love, love, love Rankin and the whole Scottish Noir thing. My next book is “Find Your Strongest Life.” I’ve made a lot of physical changes, but now I find I need an attitude adjustment!
Reading Erin Hart’s FALSE MERMAID. Lovely book from a lovely person. I would have bought it, but I was lucky enough to be given a copy by the author. Listening to a recording of Coban’s CAUGHT, finding it okay but less than thrilling. Downloaded it from Audible.com just because I want to keep up with what’s selling these days.
Borders has disappointed me greatly this year. When my first two books came out, I did a number of successful signings (successful: people bought books, sometimes by the dozen!) at Borders stores in the DC area. Some Borders stores stocked my second book automatically because the first had done so well there. This time, third book — forget it. No signings. And a friend reported that a Borders clerk refused to even order the book for pickup in the store. Not possible, the clerk said; BROKEN PLACES — despite its starred reviews in PW and LJ — is available online only. I looked into this and learned that it is indeed the case. Take a moment to absorb that: a bookstore chain that needs all the business it can get will not order a book that’s a guaranteed sale to a real live, in-person customer.
The LL cookbook would include:
Coca-cola fudge cake.
Queso
Pimento Cheese
Ice cream and freshly re-roasted pistachios (Made not sound like much of innovation, but no one else in the household is willing to roast already roasted pistachios, yet everyone agrees it’s that much better.)
Guacamole
Anything tacos (as in, I can make a taco out of pretty much anything.)
Cheese straws
Martinis
In fact, my recipes for cheese straws, martinis and my Aunt Effie’s salmon ball will appear in a cookbook later this year, I think.
I confess – hoosier that I am – “cheese straws” is a new one on me. So, through the miracle of the internets, I looked into what these things are, and made the very pleasant discovery that they look like the sort of thing that a) – I would love, and b) that I could probably make!
http://smittenkitchen.com/2009/06/cheese-straws/
And, as it happens, we’re tasked with making Sunday Dinner tomorrow for my lovely wife’s family, and these things look like just the sort of thing I can quietly add to the menu.
PS – Those salmon balls of Aunt Effie’s sound pretty good, too. Our family always goes for Gramma Gennie’s cheese balls at Christmas.
Half the fun (or the challenge) of writing a cookbook, I think, would be naming the various offerings. It would almost be a sort of stealth collection of short stories
“The Lacuna” by Barbara Kingsolver. Actually, just finished it last night. I’m a big BK fan, along with both my daughters. We have read ‘em all, and have been reading this one simultaneously across the time zones. I like the interplay of biology and plot (BK is also a biologist) in most of her books, and while she can be a bit preachy environment/human rights-wise, i usually agree with her position, so it’s OK. And I love the way she constructs a sentence. And her similes/metaphors. I savor them. She reminds me very much of EB White, my all-time fave.
Almost forgot! Laura! Please write about the person who pissed you off. Inquiring minds want to KNOW!
Ultimately, the bookstore experience is about individuals. Mary Alice, one of the geniuses of bookselling, would never sniff at a mass market. My sister, who happens to work at a B&N, is about the most well-read person one will ever meet. Jim Munchel worked for more than 25 years in a Waldenbooks and was superb at matchmaking readers and books.
Even when I couldn’t afford it, I spent money on books. Now that I can afford it, I try to spread my book-buying dollars around. Yesterday, I ended up at Octavia here in New Orleans, hoping that THE RED THREAD was out. (It’s not, darn it.) I came away with two memoirs about which I had read good things.
I order online from various independents, but I also go to B&N because that’s within walking distance of my home. (In New Orleans, I have the Garden District Book Shop within walking distance and Octavia within biking distance.) And although I know some wonderful individual booksellers at Border’s, I am really struggling with supporting that chain because of its treatment of my friend Jim, mentioned above. I think they done him wrong. I have a Kindle, so I am linked to Amazon that way.
By the way, Jim recently helped me pack up my office, in advance of a renovation. If anything was going to affect my book-buying habit, that would have been it. If anything, I think I am buying more books than ever because so many books are inaccessible to me now. However, I am enjoying the randomness of reads available to me in the little stacks that seem to form all over our house — on the large table behind our bed, in the bathroom. I may finally get around to reading Susan Choi and The Seven Types of Ambiguity, or whatever it’s called.
I’m not going to write more about what made me angry because a) I think it’s really counterproductive and b) it would be a bad idea to piss off someone this duplicitous. It’s hard to win an argument with a liar/buck-passer and I can’t afford to win this one, anyway.
I just finished �The Yiddish Policemen�s Union� and a enjoyed it. I fist heard about in when he was interviewed on NPR some time ago and finally got around to reading it. Chabon�s style is so very unique and refreshing. Although I doubt we�ll ever see Detective Landsman again, Chabon�s invented history and amazing characters made this a great read.
“What are you reading? And, more importantly, how did you choose to read that book right now?”
You know, I wouldn’t have readily grasped just how central book reviews and personal recommendations are to my book purchases, except for this question. Upon further review (so to speak) book reviews are CENTRALLY important to my book choices.
The monthly magazine PROCEEDINGS (from the US Naval Institute at Annapolis) has a book review feature that has lead me to purchase many wonderful books over the years. Various websites and mailings from Lincoln-related organizations (or museums) have lead me to many other marvelous books, too.
Also, the personal touch that visiting book tours provide have lead to many other book purchases. Generally, when a guest lecturer visits one of the local colleges, they have a book (or two or three) to sell in the lobby, and more often than not I buy one (or two or three); and a particularly pleasant aspect of that is coming away with an inscribed copy.
This is how I discovered Samantha Power and her incisive book A Problem From Hell, for example, which I almost certainly would never have bought on a whim at a book store.
As far as the importance of recommendations, Nancynall.com is the place that informed me that such an author as Laura Lippman existed, and then after reading one LL book from the library, it was ON!
And indeed, as fate would have it, LL her-own-self was on a book tour that brought her within an hour of here, so that I had the opportunity to hear her speak and interact, and snap up several more of her titles, and say ‘hello’ to her and get them inscribed!
Once having made a purchase of a book (for whatever reason), and having enjoyed it, then if I see another offering by that author, I’m predisposed to pick up the new one and leaf through it. That’s the one way that I could walk out of a bookstore with a book that I wasnt looking for to begin with.
At this point, if there was an LL cookbook, I’m predisposed to buy it.
How do you recommend a book to someone without asking a question?…….who do you read?…..do you like US or foreighn settings?…are female private eyes your interest?..if all else fails……we ask…..what do you do?????? Our detective readers/booksellers are off ane running.
Looking forward to Sunday night………….love and Joy, mary alicr
I too am in the middle of a “Books I Should Have Read” kick. I’m reading THAT OLD CAPE MAGIC and completely forgot it had been out this long until I saw it at the library of all places. So I checked it out and started reading it as I drove home.
I am reading WUTHERING HEIGHTS for the first time. Somehow I never got around to it. It is blowing my mind with its chewy goodness. I just eat up every page. As to the question about how I came to it, or it to me, I know that I came across a reference to it recently which lodged it in my head. I think it was a footnote, or a passing mention in an article about something else, but I can’t remember what. I am teaching a class about ghost stories right now, so it probably had something to do with that. The fact that I hadn’t read it started nagging at me, anyway. It’s exciting and I feel very happy.
Well, I just finished “Life Sentences”
I attended the Virginia Festival of the Book for the first time, and wound up buying 10 books on the basis of having heard their authors speak on panels. John Hart was an immediate favorite – great mysteries, gorgeous prose, wonderful sense of place – and I’ll be heading for Lost Boy next (I had to read Down River on the drive back home from the festival). Guy Gavriel Kay’s latest, Under Heaven, is apparently winging its way to me even as I type. And I recently discovered Robert Crais, and have The Last Detective on my iPod. An embarrassment of riches.
Made the cheese straws; the recipe was quite fun, and the 6 year old enjoyed helping.
I think when we do it again, we’re gonna add salt. The recipe I had called for paprika, and the net effect was bland – we sort of underwhelmed the house. (but it smelled good while they were baking)
Therefore, I very much look forward to the LL cheese straw recipe (and Aunt Effie’s salmon balls) whenever and wherever they appear
Well, I want to very specifically stay out of the drawing for the advanced copy of I’d Know You Anywhere (which in any case I will buy anywhere I see it, the first time I see it), so as to maximize others’ chances; but I WILL say that the very, very best pizza I ever had was from a truly crummy looking place called Bruno’s in Logansport, Indiana.
To be honest, the place is a dump; in fact, there is no dining area at all. You call in your order, and then go get it. It is no exaggeration to say that if 5 people are there at the same time to get their pizza pies, a sixth person will not be able to open the door to get in. It’s one of those places with a slanted glass front; it may have once been a gas station; certainly it’s no larger than that.
But the pizza? Oh my! I think the secret is the crust; ‘course, their sauce is awfully good, too. If you want green olives – forget it, they don’t offer that(!). Maybe it’s the way they cut it. They use a giant scissors, and cut the pies into rectangles rather than wedges.
I don’t know precisely why, but their pizza is always the best, and from the first time I ate it, they’ve been my favorite.
And – I will purposely order MORE than we need, because it tastes even better when reheated in the microwave the next day. (Probably has something to do with bacteria growth, which I don’t really want to know)