The Book Shopper

Happy Anniversary, A Cappella

On Friday, December 5 at 6 p.m. at the Carter Library Museum and Library, A Cappella Books, a mainstay of the Atlanta literary scene, is celebrating its 25th Anniversary with a gala and a book launch. (Press release below).

The celebration includes the debut of a book of related essays A Cozy Infinity: 25 (Mostly) Atlanta Writers on the Never-Ending Allure of Books and Bookstores. 

The A Cappella bookstore and its owner Frank Reiss are an amazing story. The main ingredient to make a bookstore great is that it has to have a personality and A Cappella reflects Frank's intellect and good judgment. Shown in the photo above manning the phones, Frank has been savvy enough to weather the ever-changing book landscape shifting from just being a traditional book shop to expanding his footprint by selling books at local literary events -- most of which he organizes.   I date myself when I say that -- Frank is like Ed Sullivan ("Ed got us The Beatles, man") in his ability to provide a landing zone for worthy local and national authors. When he recommends a book, I always make a mental note and most of the time when I go to one of his store- sponsored events it to chat with him as much as it is to see the author. That is not easy because understandably, Frank is usually there working the register. Still he's never too busy to say hello and exchange opinions on the Atlanta Braves. 

As a dubious honor, I have searched through all my postings and picked out the ones that best reflect my personal relationship with the store and its owner:

1. The Audio Tour.  When A Cappella moved to it's latest location on Haralson Avenue in 2012, I did this blog's only audio piece ever--  rundown of books mixed with chit-chat.

2.  My Appearance at A Cappella. In July, 2009 I did a reading of my book, The Book Shopper: A Life in Review at the Opal Gallery, which was where Frank hosted small readings in his Little Five Points location. There was about 15 people there (but they bought!). It is even immortalized on video. Be the 36th viewer today.

3.  Pynchon in Atlanta.  A Cappella hosted a midnight party to celebrate Thomas Pynchon's Inherent Vice (when new Pynchon books mattered.) Now they've made in a movie out of Inherent Vice.

4.  Billy Collins at the Carter Center.  U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins is always among the favorites to see and hear. Another exhilarating  experiences include meeting  Nick Hornby at The Highland Inn and getting a personally signed copy of Richard Ford's Canada. Frank and his store has made that possible.

5. Paperback Dreams. I first met Frank when he led a panel of local bookstore owners in a discussion of a documentary about two independent bookstore owners in the Bay area. It was my first blog posting (November, 2008) and an omen to the challenges that Frank has overcome in the past six years.

 

Solnit on Muybridge and Technology

I have just completed reading my fourth book by Rebecca Solnit, which speaks volumes in itself. For most authors I may read a second offering once in while, so when I read the continued efforts by the same writer, well that's says something...

My latest completed Solnit reading is River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West (2003), which considering the timeliness could have been written yesterday. Solnit examines the life and times of Muybridge (1830-1904), who is mostly remembered as the man who was hired by Leland Stanford (the Stanford University Stanford) who photographed a running horse in order to determine whether all the horse's hooves at some point were not touching the ground. Solnit uses Muybridge, who was born in England but arrived in California in 1855 as a way to look at the effects of technology (the telegraph, the locomotive, and photography/motion pictures) in the second half of the 19^th century and how California was as the epicenter of those changes --- and still is with the emergence of Silicon Valley. In short these technologies “annihilated space and time,” just as it continues to do today. The book is part biography, part history and part a thought piece on technology past and present. It's neither a condemnation or acclamation for technology, Solnit simply forces you to think about the flux we live in – past and present.

For example, recently when Denise and I were in Amsterdam, we took a day trip with a personal guide to visit some of the outlying towns. While we drove, our guide, a retired school teacher, gave us the history of the land, which was reclaimed from the sea, by an intricate systems of dikes, canals and windmills that pumped the water. Later you are standing inside the top of a working windmill you truly get a sense of the power of those wind-powered turbines.

 These windmills were also used to saw lumber, which allowed the Dutch to build ships faster than anyone else, which lead to their dominating navy ( with control Dutch West Indies, New York, Dutch East Indies) and spearheaded their 17^th century golden age. Such is the far reaching affect of a technology. It happened then as it happens now, a seemingly simple technology or change can have enormous effects and how we approach the world. And to what end?

Near the closing of her book, Solnit quotes film critic David Denby who provides a peek into the future. “The revolution will end by changing the nature of time itself,” says Denby, “thereby altering the way we live, work, seek pleasure, and gather together: We shall achieve simultaneity, ending the gap between desire and fulfillment; we shall no longer wait.”

Since I mentioned other Solnit books, I've read I will pass on her other worthy efforts.

• Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories; Wild Possibilities (2004). Written during the dark days following George W. Bush's election and the attack on the World Trade Center this thoughtful little book re-thinks how change comes about. We think that it comes top down (like from the President or from laws), but Solnit gives numerous examples throughout recent history that is it is people outside the center who actually can and do facilitate change, albeit slowly and not without setbacks.
• Wanderlust: A History of Walking (2000). A fascinating look at the history of foot travel from early times to present day (it even answers the question:Which came first? Learning to walk upright which developed our brains or is it vice versa?) If you like to walk or think, this book is for you. It's the book of hers I recommend the most.
• A Field Guide to Getting Lost (2005). A book of her related personal essays on what it means to be lost (besides just living in the moment). My favorite pieces were on how old Country-Western songs were like short stories and the artist Yves Klein.

 

Printed Matter, Inc.

As mentioned in the September 8^th posting “Chelsea Lit Crawl,” I wanted to dedicate a specific posting to another bookstore that I visited recently when I was in New York City – Printed Matter, Inc.

Printed Matter, Inc. carries tens of thousands of pamphlets, zines, posters, but mainly they stock what they define as artists' books or “publications that have been conceived as artworks in their own right. These ‘projects for the page’ are generally inexpensive, often produced in large or open editions, and are democratically available.” To say the least, there is quite an eclectric collection and you can shop online if you are so inclined.

 

When I was there I purchased two books. The first was an illustrated book about the High Line, the former elevated rail line that was converted into a greenway beginning in 2006. Its full title A Field Guide and Handbook of Thoughts, Musings, Observations, Case Studies, and Histories (Alternative, Conventional & Otherwise) on the Elevated Structure Formerly and Now Known as the High Line of the Borough of Manhattan (2013) serves not only as a title but practically as a synopis as well. The book looks and feels like one of those nature field guides that you might find at a National Park gift shop with detailed illustrations of birds, insects and plants that live in this reclaimed habitat. There is a also a brief history of the High Line, which is an example of how local activism can effect major changes.

 

Although Printed Matter, Inc. (shown left) handles thousands of books from other publishers, High Line by Mark Dion, Jorge Colombo, Ethan House, et. al was published by the book store itself.

 

My second pick was Objects in This Mirror: Essays (2014) by Brian Dillon. Admittedly, the book is still in it's shrinkwrap, so I have not read it yet, but I will get to it before the end of the year. (See my December 13th posting.) It is published by Sternberg Press out of Germany and the display copy looked intriguing with its promotional blurb from Wayne Koestenbaum. Moreover, Dillon is the UK editor of one of my favorite periodicals Cabinet Magazine.