The Book Shopper

End-of-the-Year Quote

"The old year slipped away, lamented by no one."

This quote comes from Rick Atkinson's book, The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944. It succinctly captures the sentiments of year that one would prefer to forget than review. It happens. You move on.

Best Local Book Event (That I Attended) in 2012

One of my holiday traditions like overeating, amassing credit card debt and deflating inflatable Christmas decorations is to reflect back on what book events I attended that were the most fun or interesting. I really didn't get out to many book events in 2012, but I didn't see many plays, movies or music concerts either. I did attend a few readings: Isabell Wilkerson, Charles Seabrook, and Janisee Ray at the Decatur Book Festival; Kevin Wilson and Robert Craig at the Decatur Public Library and Rob Walker and Lawrence Millman at Emory University.

Sometimes there is a significant time lapse between an author event and reading his or her book. For example, I saw Charles Mann at Emory in 2011 promoting 1493: Uncovering the World Columbus Launched, and am just now-- over the holidays – reading one of his book's 1491: New Revelations of the America's Before Columbus. A fascinating book even though talking about the diseases that wiped out millions of people in Western Hemisphere after Columbus arrived doesn't make for the best yuletide dinner conversation.

In order to supplement my meager book event attendance his year, I did attend a couple of book art shows: Brian Dettmer's work (still at MOCA until January 5th), and the book art exhibit at the Art Insitute of Atlanta-Decatur back in May. On a lesser artistic scale there was the Georgia Antiquarian Booksellers Association (GABA) Fine and Collectible Book Fair, which was held last September in Marietta. Not only did I do some book shopping there, but I enjoyed chatting with vendors like the folks at Kouyoumdjian Miniature Books of Columbia, Indiana, Lee and Bob Linn of Ridge Books in Calhoun Georgia who shared some their interest African-American fiction writer Donald Goins (Coincidently, I was reading Charles Perry's Portrait of a Young Man Drowning at the time), and Josh Niesse of Underground Books of Carollton, Georgia, who had a selection of book related novelties. For an hour, it felt great to be among “my people.” I am a book shopper; they are book shoppers too even though they pretend to be book sellers.

It is for this reason, I am awarding the less-than-coveted Book Shopper Best Local Event (That I Attended) to the 2012 GABA Fine and Collectible Book Fair. GABA joins a distinguished list that includes Andisheh Nouree (2011) the four poets Kevin Young, Thomas Lux, David Bottoms, and David Kirby (2010), the late E. Lynn Harris (2009) and Chandler Burr (2008).

Dettmer at the MOCA GA

On my lunch hour last week I drove over to see Brian Dettmer's art exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia in Atlanta. I am always interested in new ways to re-purpose used books (beyond reading them). I had my first taste of Dettmer's work at New Worlds to Conquer exhibit at Saltworks Gallery last year. This new exhibit, which contains fifteen pieces, shares some of the similarities in the New Worlds pieces in the way Dettmer carves up older illustrated books to reveal new meanings about the subject manner and richness that the printed word provides.

What I enjoyed about Dettmer's current exhibit of works that he completed this year is the variety. Yes, he has the “standard” carved out illustrated encyclopedias like the volumes of Encyclopedia Britannica shown here in Tower 1 (shown at the left , but he also has added some new interpretations. An entire wall is devoted to Altered States, where Dettmer has cut up and reassembled 50 pages of the 50 state flags, framed them, and placed them in the shape of the United States map. There is also a huge print entitled Chaos where Dettmer shows how the word, “Chaos” is visually linked to other words. Then there is Emergency Exit, which is a fire door made of partially charred paperback books. In One Word at a Time, (shown at the top), a series of paperback books are glued together.

I am not even going to pretend that I can interpret the works as art or adequately describe them, but I would encourage those of you (and I know you are out there) that appreciate the possibilities of the printed word to check out the Dettmer's exhibition, which is at the MOCA between now and January 5, 2013. The gallery is located in an enclave of antique stores in the Tula Art Center complex, so you can make an afternoon of it, instead of just taking a longer lunch hour.

Note: Images courtesy of Brian Dettmer.

Beyond Hype: A Book Shopper's Best Books of 2012

Unlike other “best” book lists, my criteria for excellence is somewhat different. To make the list requires a combination of value (how much I paid for the book) and good reading. Whether the book was published in 2012 is of little significance to me as I am a person who likes to think of himself as immune to book hype while preferring to shop for books at used bookstores, independent book stores, book festivals, church lawn sales and even online (gasp!). I crave the process. In no particular order, here’s my list of most notable finds/reads in 2012:

Marshall McLuhan: You Know Nothing of My Work (2010) by Douglas Coupland. This is an unconventional and fascinating biography because Coupland (Generation X; Microserfs) interjects his own story and cultural critiques while delving into both McLuhan's brilliance and personal flaws. The pinnacle of McLuhan's career (besides a cameo appearance in Woody Allen's Annie Hall) was his 1964 book Understanding Media. I still pick up Understanding Media from time to time and am amazed of its relevance. Coupland feels the same way.

I picked my copy browsing the shelves of Emory University's Carlos Museum Book Shop, which has many unconventional offerings. At the Carlos, I was also introduced to John Jeremiah's Sullivan's The Pulphead Essays, an excellent collection which includes several essays about the South.

Casey Stengel: His Life at Times (1984) by Robert Creamer. This sports biography starts out slow in the early innings of Stengel's life as a ballplayer, but by the late innings when Stengel is the manager of the powerhouse New York Yankee teams of the 1950s, you can fully appreciate his contribution to the game of baseball. Included in the biography are portraits of Mickey Mantle, Billy Martin and Joe DiMaggio (along with references to such baseball names as Pickles Dilhoefer, Eppa Jeptha Rixey, and my favorite name -- Bevo LeBourveau). Stengel was also the first manager of the abysmal and lovable New York Mets and coined the phrase “Can anyone here play this game?” which according to Creamer, Stengel actually said, “Can anyone play this here game?” If you are a fan of baseball history, check out Creamer's biography of George Hermann Ruth, Babe: The Legend Comes to Life (1992).

I picked up my copy off the shelf at Books Again (see sponsor link) for $7. Another fine book I read this year that revisits baseball's past is Wilfrid Sheed's memoir, My Life as a Fan (1993), but you'll probably have to order this online like I did.