The Book Shopper

Atlanta Book Event Calendar - November 2011

Let this bumpersticker serve as a reminder that there's a variety of book related events for the month of November here in Atlanta -- opportunities to expand your mind.

Think of this page  as a collection of links of different venues, so you can surf and plan your month ahead. I purposely don't put the times so you will have double check each website before heading out. The dollar sign designation ($$) indicates some kind of admission fee is charged. All events are in Atlanta unless noted.

Wednesday, November 2. Bobbi Kornblitt, author of Shelter of the Texas Heat. Tall Tales Book Shop. For details, call 404-636-2498.

Thursday, November 3. Anne Emanuel, author of Elbert R. Tuttle: Chief Jurist of the Civil Rights Revolution. (A UGA Press Book) Blue Elephant Books, Decatur.

Saturday, November 5. Cameron McWhirter, author of The Summer of 1919: The Awakening of Black America. Book signing and discussion. Auburn Avenue Research Library.

Saturday, November 5, Timothy P. Spira, author of Wildflowers and Plant Communities of Southern Appalachian Mountains and Piedmont: A Naturalists Guide of the Carolinas, Virginia, Tennessee, and Georgia. Atlanta Botanical Gardens. Details here.

Beginning November 5 thru November 20. The Book Festival of the MJCCA. ($$) Details here.

Sunday, November 6. Southern Showcase for Listening. Jessica Handler, Sam Starnes and Tony Grooms, World Improv Theatre. For details, visit Bound to Be Read Books.

Georgia Center for the Book: David Bottoms (November 7), Terry Kay (November 9), George McGovern (November 14), Winston Groom (November 15) and more. Check all their November events here.

 

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.

 

Book Signage

  This unusual “stack of books as signage” can be found promoting a used bookstore in the Berlin neighborhood of Kreuzberg. The borough has a reputation as one of the cultural centers of the city with a large percentage of immigrants and second generation immigrants. Photo credits go to my older daughter Cynthia who took these photos while doing research in Germany this summer.