The Book Shopper

Striking Out

Not an easy week getting out to something blog worthy. Not that I didn’t try:

Strike One - Tuesday: Planned on going to hear Jane Marie Law’s lecture at Agnes Scott College, "Memories of World War II” – a talk about the legacy of World War II that continues to influence contemporary Japanese culture. I got jammed at work. What can I say? The blog is not my day job.

Strike Two - Thursday:  Inspired at the Decatur Cook’s Warehouse/ Sherlock’s Wine Merchant class on how to read wine labels (from the outside, not the inside, I thought about an intriguing comparison between those who recommend wines and those (like me) who recommend books. Unfortunately, when the effects of the wine wore off, this metaphor seemed hopelessly misguided.

At the Carlos Museum Bookshop

 

Last weekend for a change of pace I was in the mood for some ol’ fashioned bookstore browsing and visited one my favorites—The Bookshop in the Michael C. Carlos Museum  on the main campus of Emory University . It’s not your most conventional book store, which is what I like about it. It has an eclectic feel, full of different titles representing various aspects art, history and culture.

For example, I picked up three books – a discounted copy of  Shank’s Mare, a comic novel written in 1802 by Japanese comic novelist Ikku Jippensha (a gift for my friend’s Denise’s son who studies Japanese culture and lives near Osaka), Michael Kimmelman’s, The Accidental Masterpiece: On the Art of Life and Vice Versa (discounted) and Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are by New York Times Magazine columnist  Rob Walker (who lives in Savannah, no less).

These are three books that I would probably not have ordered on line, but given the opportunity to thumb through them, read a few pages here and there and directly support a local business, my decision became much easier. One word of advice:  Unless you work on the campus, it’s best to visit the shop on the weekend. There’s a map on their website, but the best way to get there is to enter the campus on Clifton Road and turn onto Fishburne Drive (near North Decatur Road) and park for free at the Fishburne parking deck. From there you can walk easily to the back entrance of the museum and take the elevator to the first floor where the book shop is located.

Washington Post Book World Going Out of Print

In this article about the Washington Post Book World going from a separate standalone section to being folded into the regular newspaper is just another sign of the times as newspapers continue to try to re-invent themselves. This is not unlike the AJC’s recent changing of the name and focus of the Books & Leisure section to Arts & Leisure in an effort to “reflect a new look at how we spend our downtime.” It’s no coincidence that the shrinkage of newspaper coverage for books has led to blogs like this one who fill a need (in my case a personal need) to think and write about books and authors.

E. Lynn Harris: Identity over Stereotype

Shunning the typical performance of reading thirty or forty minutes and then answering a few questions, bestselling author E. Lynn Harris read only briefly from his latest novel Basketball Jones last Thursday at the Decatur Public Library.  Set in post-Katrina New Orleans, Basketball Jones is a novel about the relationship of a gay NBA star and his longtime lover. It must be quite graphic, as Mr. Harris paused mid-sentence and said, “This is pretty steamy stuff and the older I get, the more easily embarrassed I become—you’ll have to read this book yourselves.”