I was in Boston earlier this month visiting my older daughter Cynthia, which included weeding her book collection. This labor of love took plenty of time, but I did manage to visit my favorite Boston area bookstore – the MIT Press Bookstore.
Considering the past postings in 2010, 2016 and 2017, this has not been my first visit. We have a history.
But this time was markedly different as I entered their new store, which has returned to Kendall Square after a year shutdown during the pandemic. This time I was a professional book shopper representing the interests of my Atlanta-based book pop-up Destination: Books, which has entered its second full year bookselling. (Destination: Books will be at the Freedom Farmer’s Market at the Carter Center on Saturday morning, May 28th, with books on gardening, sustainability, food culture, and anything else eclectic that interests us).
At MIT Press Bookstore, I know I will always serendipitously find new books. My browsing was a great excuse to try out some new publishers like the Kew Publishing (UK) or AdventureKeen (Birmingham AL), but the oddest book that came back with me wasn’t a book – it was an issue of the LA+ Interdisciplinary Journal of Landscape Architecture published by the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design.
Reimagining Central Park
The theme of Issue #10 was based on the fictional premise that in 2018 Central Park in New York was completely destroyed by eco-terrorists. A call went out for designers to reimagine New York’s Central Park to submit their proposals. The issue contains the winning entries, the honorable mentions and a few Salon des Refusés, described by the editors as “entries that caught the jury’s attention and imagination that did not make the final cut.”
As you would expect, all the entries are gorgeously printed in full color. I could not begin to do these presentations justice and I doubt the publishers would appreciate me trying. Fortunately, you can get a sense of the Iconoclast issue by going there directly.
At Destination: Books we are not in the same league as the MIT Press (though we do sell some of their books like Electrify: An Optimist's Playbook for Our Clean Energy Future), but our goal is the same: Showcasing books that are worth "adventuring" across the country or at least the city to hold in your hands.
