The Book Shopper - Atlanta

A Cappella's New Store: A Browser's Audio Tour

Just off Dekalb Avenue on Harolson Avenue– not far from the spot where Scarlett's second husband Frank Kennedy was killed in Gone with with Wind – near the Inman Park MARTA station – is the new home of A Cappella Books, a mainstay of the Atlanta book scene for over twenty years.

A Cappella is owned by Frank Reiss. I stopped by to visit with Frank (you can hear him in the background) and do a walk through of the new store. Here's the raw recording ( a little over three minutes) but you can get a sense of what it means to browse at a good bookstore.

Download Audio Tour of A Cappella (Windows)

Audio Tour of A Cappella (mpg)

 

 

Birmingham Book Store

Late last year I drove over to Birmingham to visit my daughter and she insisted that we check out Jim Reed Books/The Museum of Fond Thought located in the historic downtown district. She knows what I like.

In business since 1980, the store boasts a collection of about 50,000 books, magazines and posters along with another 250,000 undocumented items. It's a great place to browse down memory lane. Many of the books that fill the shelves I hadn't seen in a while, but I recall as being quite popular in their heyday. (How soon the bloom of popularity can fade.) I ended up purchasing a copy of Jim Harrison's 1984 novel Sundog. When I am in a reading rut, I always turn to Harrison to get out of it. His novels are spirited and meaningful without being pretentious (kind of like Reed Books).

It is worth stopping by Reed Books when you're in Birmingham, if for no other reason than to get on their mailing list. Since I signed up, I now get weekly, quirky, emails from the owner Jim Reed promoting the store, which includes a list of items people purchased throughout the week (Kind of like the MARTA book club). Reed, who is also a writer, edits the Birmingham Arts Journal.

Book Shopping: Santorini, Greece

Only an obsessed book shopper would forgo the famous scenery and sunsets on the Greek island of Santorini to go book shopping, but it was my vacation too, right? While my longtime fiance Denise spent the early evening in jewelry shops and the like, I ducked into Atlantis Books in the town of Oia. ( I can be very patient when I want to.)

Inside Atlantis Books there are tall shelves books in several languages including English and a few touches of design elegance like the light fixture. I talked to one of the owners Chris Bloomfield, who grew up in Tennessee and went to school in Memphis. Chatting books, we shared the common ground of being Thomas Pynchon readers and if you meet someone who has read Pynchon you latch on to them. Chris highly recommended the challenging Mason & Dixon and we both are in awe of Against the Day. (I wonder if he was envious of my muted horn decorative plate.)

 Of course while traveling I am always reluctant to buy heavy items to lug back to the States. Little did I know that before returning stateside, Denise and I would buy a suitcase just to carry our shishes home. ( A shish is the stick portion of the shish kabob). But Chris showed me this series of small reprints from their own Paravion Press. The reprints are postcard sized editions of short works that are tailored to be sent by mail. One set includes stories by O Henry, Anton Chekhov and Mark Twain and their recent offering features stories about New York City. Since they are very clever and lightweight, I bought a set to bring back with me. These small illustrated books are gorgeously printed –again like ones displayed in the bookstore in Chania (previous posting)—books worth holding on to.

Book Shopping in Chania, Crete

Thanks in part to reading John Freely's Crete, (more about travel books in a later posting), my longtime fiance Denise and I did a self-guided walking tour of city of Chania, which is port city on the west side of the island. This city dates back to the time of Homer's Odyssey and the city's architecture reflects the mix of Venetian and Ottoman influences.

According to Freely, one of of best streets for walking is the Odos Theotokopoulou, which is near the old Venetian fort that dominates the west side of the harbor. By walking on one of the side streets of Theotokopoulou, I found a book and art store called Exantas. Notice the tempting display of books in glass cases that drew me inside (the proprietor politely requested that I not take photos inside the store). In addition to many art and architecture books, the store carried jewelry and old prints of the city and maps. I purchased a few postcards instead of books (the weight of books is a major deterrent to buying books when I travel), but Denise purchased a decorative pin (light and easy-to-carry).

I talked to the clerk/sale rep briefly and from what I could understand, the book store was owned by a publisher, who carried their offerings (especially prints and photographs) and other books as well. What I appreciated about store was that the books were as much artifacts as prints and jewelry – worthy of beholding and worthy of reading.

 

 

Touting the Istanbul Book Bazaar

Following the theme established in the last posting and leveraging my recent vacation to Turkey and Greece, I'm posting several photos of the few bookstores I checked out during my recent travels. My trip was hardly intended to be a “literary tour,” but books always play a role in my journeys (along with food, incessant photo taking and airport delays).

These photos are from the Istanbul Book Bazaar Sahaflar Carsisi, which is just outside the more well known Grand Bazaar. On both of my brief visits to the book bazaar, I observed plenty of shoppers hovering around the tables and shelves of books, but unlike The Grand Bazaar and the nearby Egyptian Spice Bazaar there was a noticeable absence of what are called, “touters.” In Istanbul, it is common for an outside salesman called a “touter” to stand outside the entrance of their business and aggressively but politely solicit you to enter their establishment.

But why shouldn't book sellers use touters too? I think it would be an idea worth trying at next year's Decatur Book Festival.

 

Bookstore News: Near and Far #3

This the third in a short series about bookstores.

Books Again, Decatur

Books Again in downtown Decatur celebrates its 10th anniversary with a huge book sale this Memorial Day weekend. I will probably stop by sometime during the Decatur Arts Festival. The owner Jim Adams is always friendly to talk books with.  Monique who works the register is also very knowledgeable. (We share an appreciation of Believer Magazine). The store carries a lot of quality fiction, especially Southern fiction – some of its autographed, but you don't have to be a collector. See comments for sale hours and location. (Photo courtesy of Books Again).

Peerless Books, Alpharetta

A new book store has opened in the Atlanta area – Peerless Books in Alpharetta.  One of the co-owners George Scott is a tireless promoter of books and writers who I met when he was at Eagle Eye Books here in Decatur. George is a high energy guy and has a wealth of information about the Atlanta writing scene. (Peerless offers writing classes as well.) Check their website here.

Georgia Antiquarian Booksellers Association, Marietta

The Georgia Antiquarian Booksellers Association Sale is being held at the Cobb County Civic Center on Saturday and Sunday, June 11 and 12th. For details visit here. It used be a lot easier for me to visit them in the Holiday Inn during the Decatur Book Festival, but the opportunity to see the wares of 60 book dealers from all over the Southeast is still worth a longer trip.

 

Bookstore News: Near and Far #2

The second of a short series on bookstores. (Scoll down to see the first installment.)

Carlos Museum Book Shop, Emory University

Another bookshop that also carries books in art, science and the humanities is the Carlos Museum Book Shop. Both the manager Mark Burrell and Brent Tozzer, who handles the register on the weekends, dropped me notes to stop by for their book sale earlier this month. (They know I am an easy mark.)  I was ecstatic to pick up a couple hardback copies of one of my favorite books in the last couple years, Clive James' Cultural Amnesia: Necessary Memories from History and the Arts. It has even influenced my book shopping (e.g. Purchasing the Cavett biography at Atlanta Vintage Books).

Now I can mark up my paper back copy with impunity (and save the new copy for show) and gift a copy for my older daughter who just celebrated a birthday.

In behalf of the MARTA book club, I also picked up Green Metropolis: Why Living Smaller, Living Closer and Driving Less Are the Keys to Sustainability by David Owen. (I liked his other books The Walls Around Us and My Usual Game, the latter I found at A Cappella's outside discount shelf). In Metropolis Owen describes Atlanta as a “city that has probably been the source of more bad transportation policy than any other city in America.” (I will be sure to shout “We're Number One !!! We're Number One !!!” the next time the train runs late.)

Bookstore News: Near and Far #1

This is the first of a short series about bookstores of interest:

Eighth Day Books: Wichita, Kansas

I received a promotional email from one of my favorite book stores – Eighth Day Books in Wichita, Kansas, which I visited a couple of years ago (see here). Eighth Day has specialized in the classic books of art, science and the humanities since 1988. Every year they publish a fantastic catalog (cover art shown) and if you contact them they will put you on their mailing list for next month's release. In the meantime you should visit their website and check out their blog, which contains information about their current Spring sale (15% off and free shipping thru Sunday, May 22) and has a link to Eighth Day owner Warren Farha's essay, “Why Bother with Books”

In Farha's essay, he begins with a few experiences of how he loved books as a youth (reinforcing the consensus that it is passion that is nurtured in the young). But Farha also draws on the works of Mark Bauerlein, Nicholas Carr and one of my favorite writers Neil Postman making a compelling argument about the pitfalls of reading books digitally. It reminds me of Marshall McLuhan  who wrote in Understanding Media (1964) that how we process information (the format of the information) is as important as the content. Hence, the phrase the “Medium is the Message.”

Coincidentally, I am reading the book I bought at Eighth Day, 18 months ago – Donald Kagen's The Peloponnesian War, about the thirty years war between Sparta and Athens, which lasted from 431 to 404 BC. Admittedly it takes me time to get around to reading what I thought would be challenging book, but I've been pleasantly surprised how readable Kagen's history has been (the book is promoted as such). So far I've found it fascinating and relevant to our world today, especially when he writes about what qualities are necessary for a great leader. An erudite friend teased me that Kagen version was like drinking scotch with ginger ale, but my comeback was, “Well, if I were to drink Scotch, I'd probably have start with ginger ale.”

If I survive the Kagen book, I might hold the ginger ale and take a look at Landmark Thucydides : A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War by: Robert B. Strassler, which has been highly recommended by Farha and my friend.

Atlanta Vintage Books

I finally made it over to Atlanta Vintage Books on Clairmont Road.  Admittedly I only had a vague notion about the place, but since I was out doing a few errands (recycling,
picking up shrimp at Crawfish Shack Seafood on Buford Highway), I stopped in. Shame on me for not going sooner because it is the kind of book store I like to browse at: plenty of fiction/literature, military history (they had two of Rick Atkinson's books from The Liberation Trilogy in tempting hardback) and a wide selection of books on various topics. You can wander from room to room and get easily lost in the stacks. (Good thing I hadn't picked up the shrimp first or the small herd of Atlanta Vintage Cats might have mauled me and left me in the book store basement.)

I found a Dick Cavett biography that I have long been interested in since I read about it briefly in Clive James' Cultural Amnesia: Necessary Memories from History and the Arts (2007). James refers to Cavett (1974) as “One of the best books about show business ever published, there is nothing quite like it...” Written by Dick Cavett and Christopher Porterfield, the book utilizes an interview format instead of a narrative one.

Blue Elephant Book Shop

 

As someone who enjoys shopping for books, I certainly like the new location and layout of Blue Elephant Book Shop, which as moved from the busy intersection at Claremont and North Decatur to downtown Decatur near Dancing Goats Coffee Bar.  Even though previously  it was just across an intersection from Eagle’s Eye, you would risk your life walking from one bookstore to the other.

  Bookstores seem like a natural fit for re-purposed houses (like Eighth Day Books in Wichita, Kansas or Atlanta Book Exchange on Highland) as each room can host a different genre of books (contemporary fiction, history, local interest books and children’s books). Even though I would order an occasional book, or stop by to grab something as a quick gift at the old Blue Elephant location, it always seemed too wide open for the intimate activity of browsing.