On Saturday, I had some time to do some serious book
shopping, which includes finding homes for my old books, in preparation for my ongoing
Big Read.
I began by trading several novelty baseball books with Jim
Adams at Decatur’s Books Again for
an autographed copy of Padgett Powell’s Mrs.
Hollingsworth’s Men as I became interested in Powell 
after this recent
reading. I also found out that on Wednesday February 24th, Books
Again is hosting Literacy Volunteers of Atlanta’s, Executive Director Victoria
Kingsland for her discussion of Zora Neale Hurston’s 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. This is part
of National Endowment of the Arts’ The Big Read initiative. I am not that familiar with the Hurston, but
the complimentary NEA Reader’s Guide (available at Books Again) provides a thorough
overview of the significance of her writing.
Next I went to Eagle Eye Books in Decatur
to unload a few more books including my reviewer’s copy of Michael Gates Gill’s
How to Save Your Own Life. Sometimes a publisher hears about blogs like
this one and sends me a book. But unless it has some local angle, I usually
stay away from reviewing (too time-consuming). Gill was here last month in Atlanta
promoting his perky self-help book.
From Eagle Eye, I drove over at the William C. Carlos Museum
BookShop where Director Mark Burell had left me a book for pickup -- Chris
Hedges’ Empire of Illusion The End of
Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle.
I asked him earlier to be on look out for the book when it came out in
paperback, but when the hard copy went on sale, Mark dropped me an email and
said he’d hold a copy for me.
Instead of grocery shopping (not nearly as much fun) I
stopped by Too Tall Tales in Toco
Hills Shopping Center.
Too Tall is a quaint store with an eclectic selection and I hadn’t been in
there in a while. In the bargain room in the back they had hardback copies of
Thomas Pynchon’s Inherent Vice (see my
thoughts) and a Mark Kurlansky book, The
Food of a Younger Land, which Atlanta foodies should be interested in. (Coincidently,
Kurlansky’s book includes excerpts from the writings of Hurston.) They also had
a reviewer’s copy of R. Frank Daniel’s FutureProof,
but I opted for Barbara Ehrenreich’s Bright-Sided:
How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America as
I am still trying to wash the taste of the Gill book out of my mouth.
My final destination was the Decatur
Public Library where I donated a few quality (in my opinion) duplicates from my
library for the upcoming Friends of the Library book sale: This included Oscar Hijuelo’s The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, Tom Wolfe’s The Right Stuff and Ann McDermott’s That Night. My offerings were squat
compared to the woman ahead of me with the shopping cart who was unloading
several grocery bags full of paperbacks. Jim Adams of Books Again said he
donated about 10 boxes of books as well. There’s plenty for everyone. The sale
is being held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, February 27th..
If all that wasn’t enough, my recent order from Eighth Day
Books in Wichita, Kansas
was waiting for me in the mailbox when I got home. Since reading Clive James’ Cultural Amnesia, I’ve been interested
in the early 19th century English essayist William Hazlitt, Eighth
Day owner Warren Farha recommended the Oxford
edition of Selected Writings.
It looks like I am well stocked for the next few months (but
I’m always well-stocked), but it’s refreshing to do a little tour of local book
stores and see what’s out there. It’s also important to try to find a home for
my old books, so they don’t end up in the dumpster.
Thanks for "publicizing" The Big Read at Books Again!!!
Posted by: Elizabeth Wilson | February 23, 2010 at 09:03 AM