I was up in Boston over the Fourth of July weekend visiting my daughter. Traditionally, Boston is a great book shopping town for me, but I didn't make it out like I normally do.
I did squeeze in a couple of my normal stops. Raven Used Books and the Harvard Bookstore, but ran out of time before I could make it down to the M.I.T Press Bookstore. I took some solace in my poor time management since I haven't read the book I bought at M.I.T. last December on my last visit. (This photo comes from the storefront of a used bookstore near M.I.T. )
At Raven, I found a copy of a Charles Portis' 1966 novel, Norwood, but another book Lie Down in Darkness (1951) by William Styron found me. I was staying at the Irving House, a bed & breakfast near the Harvard campus. According to the in-room brochure the general manager is a book shopper and she has stocked her rooms with plenty of books and not just bestsellers. In my room among other literary offerings, was Richard Ford's Canada (which I read last year) and the Styron book. Just a few weeks ago I had finished Styron's Tidewater Mornings, a book of three long short stories. I found the prose exquisite and his portrayal of the South fascinating – no surprise that he was such an intense and troubled writer. A work colleague told me that Darkness was worth the read as well and she knows something about books since she recommended Zadie Smith's White Teeth to me earlier this year, which I thought was fine book.
The management at Irving House makes it very clear that guests are allowed to take books with them. Good thing, since this is a book shopping blog, not a book stealing blog.
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