The Book Shopper

Pirate Stories

In preparation for spending a week in Seaside, Florida with my younger daughter Bonnie and her family, I opted to make it a Pirate-themed vacation. I picked up a set of Pirate action figures, but (upon polite understandable request) removed all their weapons, which included pistols, knives, and cutlasses. While this limited the crew’s culinary activities at any bonfire pig roasts it did make things safer if the crew became “jolly-rogered” from too much rum. Weapons and alcohol are not a safe combination even for action figures.

My grandsons Myrick, 5, and Larson, 20 months liked the new toys and they got into the spirit, especially Larson who forced the buccaneers to walk the plank into the backyard pool. The family even assigned them names. Shown in the picture above are six of the crew members left to right: Cannonball, Bones, Burnside Capri, Captain Hook, Scurvy, and Ocean Dancer. (Not shown are Grog and Ponytail who presumably are lost at sea or disappeared in the car ride home.)

Treasure Island

Also in anticipation, I brought along a copy of Treasure Island published by Robert Louis Stevenson in 1883. This was the 100th Anniversary Edition, which has artwork from the 1934, which did not spare any weapon imagery.  My selection was based that it was illustrated without being a graphic novel. I read some of this to Myrick in the car and at bedtime, but it was thick with a lot of old-timey language. I did my best pirate accents (aaargh, I’m awful) and tried to edit on the fly while I read to simplify the plot. It’s a good adventure and Myrick indulged me by asking lots of questions like “What is rum?”

Later I drifted down to the center of Seaside and Sundog Books, which had a wide selection of vacation reads, books about Florida, children’s books. I picked up two books one about a duck family who goes to the beach and Margaret Wise’s The Sailor Dog. Both, along with a sticker book of construction equipment, proved invaluable on the trip home

 When I Was a Pirate

However, it was Bonnie who found the perfect book at a different shop in Seaside. Tom Silson’s When I Was a Pirate. It is the story of a retired pirate who reflects on his seafaring adventures as a young man. Though he longs for days when he traveled the globe visiting distant lands (no mention of pillaging or mutinies), his “sore back and aching knees” magically disappear as he chases his (well-armed) grandchildren on the sandy beach.

Definitely a pirate story I could identify with.

From "When I Was a Pirate"

 

My History with the Dos Passos Trilogy

The first thing that captured my imagination about the Dos Passos's U.S.A. Trilogy was the clever artwork of the Signet Classics, which were prominently displayed in the bookstores of my college youth. I finally bought them, and they stayed on my shelves for a number of years. I do not recall when I finally read them, but I did it over a period of years, probably during the 1990s. 

The Signet Classics were notable because they each contained an introduction by writer and literary critic Alfred Kazin, who summarized the three books of the trilogy —The 42nd Parallel (1930), 1919 (1932), and The Big Money (1936)— as a portrayal of America before it became a superpower. We grew up thinking of America as that way, but Kazin reminds us that America was a raw and often brutal country in the first quarter of the 20th century. (To better understand significance of Dos Passos's work, check out the essay by James Mustich, author of 1000 Books to Read Before You Die, E Pluribus Unum. On John Dos Passos's U.S.A.)

Kazin writes that Dos Passos shows how the rich men of America (characterized by J. P. Morgan) controlled the lives of working men and women. The average man or woman didn't have a chance against the "mass culture, mass superstition and mass slogans" perpetrated by the powerful.

Another memorable aspect of the Signet Classics is that they were illustrated by Reginald Marsh (1898-1954) who drew for The New Yorker in the 1920s but went on to become an artist of some renown and a contemporary of the more well-known Thomas Hart Benton.  Marsh was known for his "depictions of life in New York City in the 1920s and 30s." (Wikipedia). A sample of Marsh's work graces the cover of earlier paperbacks, shown at the left.

Flashback and Flashforward - 192 Books

In September 2014, my partner Denise and I did a self-guided bookstore tour in the Chelsea section of New York City, which I wrote about in the posting Chelsea Lit Crawl. 

Usually if I like a new bookstore, I will make an effort to purchase something and at 192 Books, I bought the Library of America edition of the U.S.A. trilogy, which wrapped Dos Passo's work into a single volume. I replaced my tattered paperbacks. not knowing whether I would ever pick it up again and reread it.

For those not familiar with the Library of America, it is a nonprofit publisher championed by critic Edmund Wilson (1895 - 1974), which published its first book in 1982.  LOA has since then published 300 volumes of works ranging from poetry, novels, crime writing, science fiction, essays and journalism.

This summer our GRSG book (support) group selected The 42nd Parallel— partly I suspect because I had this book waiting on my shelf. Since the LOA edition is printed on "premium acid-free lightweight opaque paper that...will not turn yellow or brittle for centuries," the book was in mint condition.  The Smyth-sewn bindings also ensured "that the books open easily and lie flat without crinkling or buckling." 

Though I miss the Kazin commentary and the Reginald Marsh artwork of the Signet paperbacks, this edition more than makes up for it because it includes a Dos Passos's biographical timeline, a chronology of world events, and some annotation (including timely translations of some French phrases). All helpful because the U.S.A. trilogy is a history of America, which included many characters galivanting around Europe during the first World War. (The characters in 1919 spend their time in the Parisian and Italian cafés far away from the front.)

I am not sure that Dos Passos is for everybody but if you look at some of LOA's other offerings, I am sure you can find something of interest. And don't worry, you don't have to read it right away.

Just a sample

 

 

Professional Book Shopping

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.

 

Life Under Totalitarianism

For a better understanding for what life is like under totalitarianism (and what the Ukrainians are fighting for/against) check out the works of Josef Škvoreckؘý (1924-2012). I just finished reading two of his novellas Emὃke (1963, tr. 1977) and The Bass Saxophone (1967, tr. 1977), which are combined in a single volume with an introductory piece "Red Music." Škvoreckؘý played saxophone with a jazz group Red Music growing up in Czechoslovakia. In 1968, the Soviets removed the Czech reformist government with an invasion of a half-a-million troops, crushing the budding Prague Spring. Škvoreckؘý and his wife emigrated to Canada where he became a professor and started a publishing company that made the works of banned Czech writers available throughout the world and to his fellow countryman.

This is not the first time I have read the prolific Škvoreckؘý.  When my partner Denise and I were in the Czech Republic in the fall of 2019 on vacation, I took a copy of his short detective novel The End of Lieutenant Bovurka (1975) with me. After reading it and I picked up a copy The Return of Lieutenant Bovurka (1991) at the English language bookstore Shakespeare near the Franz Kafka Museum. In each book the melancholic detective Bovurka must walk a tightrope of solving crimes and resisting the Communist regime. These books reinforced the sentiment expressed by our middle-aged tour guide over drafts of Pilsner Urquell as he described the suppression in Czechoslovakia under the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s. 

The Memorial to the Victims of Communism (shown above) in the Lesser Town Area of Prague serves as a reminder who disappeared during the Soviet regime.

Last fall when I went to Germany (the former East German cities of Cottbus and Dresden) to visit my older daughter Cynthia, I took a copy of Škvoreckؘý’s most well-known work the voluminous The Engineer of Human Souls (1977, tr. 1984) The narrator Danny Smiricky (considered Škvoreckؘý’s alter-ego in many of his novels – like Philip Roth’s Zuckerman) has emigrated from Czechoslovakia and is a professor in Toronto. Smiricky mixes his recollections of living under German occupation with ex-pats in Canada wrestling with their guilt in leaving Europe.  Because of all the characters and the time switches, the book is a challenging read and I’ll admit I did not finish it. (More my shortcoming than the book’s).

Despite the grim settings of oppression under totalitarian regimes, there is an element of humor/absurdity in his many of writings and in the links below there is a prime example from The Bass Saxophone.

Related Links

 A lengthy tribute to Škvoreckؘý from Paul Wilson in the Guardian who translated The Engineer of Human Souls to English. (Its title refers to Stalin's description of writers),

A Škvoreckؘý passage from the introduction to The Bass Saxophone listing the Nazis 10 Rules to Combat Jazz.  Note: The best way to buy this out-of-print book is through Alibris. Make sure you get the copy that includes the Introductory "Red Music". The easiest way to get the correct copy is type the ISBN number 0-671-55681-9 in the search bar at Alibris Books.

And The Book Shopper Blog has a couple of postings that mention similar books. “In Best Books Read of 2019"I write about sending a book about Trump’s impending impeachment over the Ukraine scandal to then Georgia Senator David Perdue.  Another posting "Tyranny, Voting and Making Love for the Last Time" is a shoutout to Timothy Snyder’s book On Tyranny (2017). (Since then, a graphic version of the book is available at Destination: Books, a reluctantly proud blog sponsor.)

Be vigilant, especially here in Georgia where they have made it much more difficult to vote.

Why I Blog

Next year will be the thirteenth year of The Book Shopper blog and if I keep at the current pace of approximately two offerings a month, the 500th posting should appear sometime late next year.

It’s not too early to start pondering how this milestone should it be celebrated.  Here are three possibilities that are currently percolating in my brain:

Possibility One. Host a party or gala. Rent out a small exercise room at the local rec center.  Invite some of the regular blog readers as an opportunity to meet one another, swap stories and anecdotes. Though I am always apprehensive of putting my friends—even virtual friends together— I have the sense that the typical discriminating Book Shopper reader will peacefully share their thoughts on quirky, demanding books or the oddities of book culture. They would all probably get along unless…

Negatives thoughts on Possibility One. Since the Number 1 visited page of all time is the Unabomber’s Library Part Two, I could end up with more of a fringe element in attendence. These well-read anarchists might get out of control after quaffing too much Trader Joe’s Two Buck Chuck.

Possibility Two. Invite the more well-known book celebrities to comment on their cameo appearances on the blog. They include writer David Shields, Books-as-Art Artist Brian Dettmer, photographer Emily Berl, avantgarde filmmaker James Benning and rapper Killer Mike (when he appeared at a book event of Thomas Chatterton Williams).

Negative thoughts on Possibility Two. These artists might ask that their names and work be removed from The Book Shopper, which would have a devastating effect on blog traffic.

Possibility Three. Just surf through all the previous 470+ postings and repurpose some of the more timeless entries and then take the year off.

Negative thoughts on Possibility Three: I am not sure that’s a good idea, because as the late Joan Didion wrote in her essay “Why I Write” that she writes to know what she is thinking. This is how I feel about blogging,

If I cease to blog, then I may not be thinking. And if I am not thinking, I am not percolating. 

 

Traveling by Book

“A travel writer knows that a reader isn’t interested in tourism” – Jorge Carrión

Though I am starting to give serious thought (like the statuesque Dante) about traveling outside the tri-county area, I remain for the time being tethered to home. Undeterred, I recently finished reading two short books that have taken me to places around the country and the globe, but with two different approaches.

American Places

It does not really matter whether or not you have visited the points of interest in William Zinsser’s  American Places: A Writer’s Pilgrimage to Sixteen of This Country’s Most Visited and Cherished Sites (1992, 2007). Zinsser makes it work either way. It has been decades since I visited Mark Twain’s hometown and Zinsser’s descriptions reminded me that Hannibal wasn’t much more than Tom Sawyer’s House, Becky Thatcher’s House and a roadside view of Jackson Island on the mighty Mississippi.  And yes, Zinsser's overall impression of The Alamo was the same as mine: The Alamo is a lot tinier than you would ever expect. (The reason? We grew up seeing it on big movie screens.)

And if you are concerned that it's been nearly 30 years since its original publication, don't worry. American Places isn’t a tour guidebook anyway. He examines the fundamentals of why places in our nation’s history continually resonate with us. 

Two things that keep the book fresh is that Zinsser interviews National Park Rangers and gift shop employees alike and purposely avoids talking to tourists and official representatives. This allows him to get the insights of those who are there every day and provide a fair amount of background history on the site itself (e.g. Mount Vernon had fallen into serious disrepair just before The Civil War and later during the war both armies agreed not to battle there, treating it as a demilitarized zone).

Also, this not just a compilation of independent pieces published elsewhere, Zinsser builds on the narrative of his trip and circles back on previous stops to draw comparisons between the sites.

As the author of the mega bestseller On Writing Well (1976), Zinsser has set high expectations for tight, evocative prose and he does not disappoint. And as a bonus, there are many passages that have a subtle humor to them. For example,  in this excerpt from the Alamo chapter Zinsser watches the tourists buying  gift items and lists the items alphabetically: ashtrays, belts, bookmarks, books, buckles, bumper stickers…tote bags, toy guns, and yo-yos. “I was impressed that one small martial shrine could lend its imagery to such a multitude of domestic uses,” he writes. “The items all appeared to be of a certain quality above kitsch, and I walked around the display counters and racks taking notes. As I was finishing, a very tall security guard accosted me and told me to ‘step outside.’ I followed him out the door, my heartbeat racing ( I am about to be arrested at the Alamo!)…”

Unamerican Places

In sharp contrast in style and content, Jose Carriόn’s Against Amazon and Other Essays (2019) acts a guide to book shops and book people in London, Korea, Argentina, Tokyo, Mexico City, Capri and his home country of Spain. Carriόn made this blog’s Best Books Read in 2018 with his 2017 effort —Bookshops: A Reader’s History. (His Certificate of Merit is still waiting to be picked up at the blog offices, sigh.)

His anti-Amazon title essay includes a seven-part manifesto why we should not mindlessly bow to the will of the corporate giant when we buy our books. 

Carrión also interviews The History of Reading ’s Alberto Manguel who now is the director of the National Library of Argentina. Manguel tells the story of every booklover’s nightmare— how he was forced to dismantle his 40,000 book library and move it from France to Montreal.

As Carrión takes you to various book shops and booksellers throughout the globe he reminds readers the value of physicality of the best bookshops inhabited by booksellers who can tell you what is on the shelves without checking their computer. In contrast to Zinsser who is diligent in connecting the dots, Carriόn will refer to many favorite titles and bookshops, many of which  you have not heard of, much less visited. But do not be discouraged, just ride his passion.

Besides being “travel books not for tourists” another of commonality of these two books is the author Jorge Luis Borges. The Argentinian-born Borges, known for his writings about labyrinthic book places, figures in one of Zinsser’s American Places—Hannibal, Missouri the boyhood home of Mark Twain.

According to Zinsser, in 1982, the aging, blind Borges accepted an invitation to give a lecture at Washington University in St. Louis on the condition that he could visit firsthand the “the source of the author’s strength.”  Zinsser tells the story of the museum curator that accompanied Borges:

“I took him down Front Street and led him across the cinders where some cobblestones go down to the Mississippi. He squatted to where he could reach the river, and he leaned over and let the water run through his hands. Then he said, ‘Now my journey is complete.’”

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Here's our American family at Tom Sawyer's house. From the left is my brother Neil, my sister Kay,  our Dad, (wearing his "vacation tie" ) and your narrator. Mom is taking the photo. No Borges photobombing.

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The Shopper Becomes the Shopkeeper

After a year hiatus my book pop-up Destination: Books will be at the Freedom Farmer's Market at the Carter Center here in Atlanta on Saturday morning, March 27, 2021.  My longtime partner Denise and I did this once last year just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit and it was fun talking with people about books. It was difficult to shut it down, but things have improved and both of us have had our second vaccinations. (Still, public health protocols will be followed. Denise is retired from CDC. )

Destination: Books (for the adventurous) specializes in history,  travel writing,  gardening & sustainability, and books about books. As one might suspect,  we will be bringing mostly about gardening & sustainability books but with a few surprises (to make it destination worthy).  See the pop-up inventory page at the Destination: Books homepage  for details.

Naturally, my books The Book Shopper: A Life in Review and the obscure, cult-classic, wannabe Down & Outbound: A Mass Transit Satire will be there too. I guess I have joined the ranks of writer-book retailer, but no one ever confused me with Anne Patchett, Larry McMurtry or Lawrence Ferlinghetti. 

Here's hoping for good weather (a rainout is possible) and the t-shirt still fits.

Book Shopping-Hoarding Justifications

We are living in an era when it is easier than ever to justify purchasing lots of books: a.) the need to support your favorite bookstores  b.) more time to read, and c.) more friends are talking about the books they are reading and making more suggestions. It is the perfect storm. Even the Book Shopper blog is experiencing an uptick in monthly traffic and believe me that is big (read: strange) news. Allow me to elaborate. You got the time, right?

A.) Supporting favorite bookstores

For me, I have a had long relationship with Carlos Museum Book Shop on campus of the Emory University here in Atlanta. They are closed temporarily but their store manager Mark Burell is curating lists of excellent books online. My partner Denise and I have been under Burell's influence for quite some time. It was browsing in this eclectic book shop in 2007, where I purchased Gabriel Zaid's So Many Books: Reading and Publishing in the Age of Abundance (2003) published by Paul Dry Books in Philadelphia. This eventually led to the publishing of this blog’s name sake The Book Shopper: A Life in Review in 2009. That’s quite a connection, eh?

Another bookstore relationship over the years has been with Eighth Day Books in Wichita, Kansas. While on the “World Book Tour” of The Book Shopper, my longtime friend Bruce Woods introduced me to the passion of Eighth Day Books and its owner Warren Farha. Eighth Day carries classics in religion, philosophy, history and literature. They recently published a new catalog of their offerings, similar to the catalog I wrote about in the January 2012 posting “A Spiritual Education Made Easy”. I ordered a copy of E.F. Schumaker’s classic 1973, Small is Beautiful: Economics As If People Mattered, and The Portable Graham Greene (1994) edited by Philip Stratford (a suggestion from friend Jim Simpson) along with an extra copy of the catalog.

B.) More time to read

One of the better books I’ve read so far this year came via The Carlos Museum Bookshop online service is Gene Smith’s Sink: A Wide-Angle View (2017) by Sam Stephenson. Born in Wichita, Kansas in 1918, William Eugene Smith was a master photojournalist and became well known for his pictures of Pacific War and later the haunting image “Tomoko Uemura in Her Bath,” (1971) a shocking photo which appeared first appeared in Life Magazine and later in book that captured the effects of industrial mercury poisoning on the city of Minamata, Japan.

Sink is not a photography book and Smith’s photographs are tightly controlled but you can see many of them online at Magnum, where Smith worked with off and on until he died of a stroke in 1978.

What makes Gene Smith’s Sink a great read is that the author Stephenson concentrates on the fascinating people (ex-wives, jazz musicians, and assistants) who revolved around the Smith universe. Stephenson traveled all over the world including Japan on his quest to talk to those who had first-hand knowledge of Smith’s photojournalist essays. Another aspect of Smith's life, which Stephenson dives into is the loft in New York City where Smith lived. The place was jammed full with photographs, prints and audio recordings of jazz musicians that frequented his apartment including Mose Allison, Thelonious Monk, Hall Overton and Sonny Clarke. I will admit I knew next-to-nothing about these artists, but after reading Sink, I expanded my personal audio playlists.

You can find this book and another great ones (like Cultural Amnesia by Clives James) at the Carlos Museum Bookshop be sure to click on the GREAT BOOKS FOR ADULTS link.

C.) More friend time equals more books suggestions

Part of my down time has been spent connecting with old friends more frequently. I am more of an old school telephone guy than a Zoom personality. If I opt for screen time, I fear friends may be disappointed that I don’t have an impressive bookcase* like PBS New Hour's Judy Woodruff.  Or I may be revealing too much like PBS political commentator Amy Walters who had a Hamm's Beer Plaque on her bookshelf that she has since covered up. (See the posting Books in the Background.) 

On these calls, in between gulps of Hamm's,** we ask each other what we are reading. This is a little dangerous because you can easily become intrigued about what they are reading. During the pandemic,  the suggestions have been overwhelming. So much so that I added the page Suggested Readings as a link of the The Book Shopper flagship homepage to personally keep track of future books-to-read candidates.  

I realize that I am doing this at the risk of being bombarded for online ads for the books that have appeared on my Suggested Readings Page? More possibilities in this endless spiral of hoarding ahead, I suspect.

* For the record, the avalanche of books in the photograph aboves comes from bookstore in Berlin not my study.

** I am making a joke here since Hamm's is no longer being brewed. In my youth, it was known as a Pabst Blue Ribbon class of lowbrow beer before PBR became "retro-chic."  Also, it has a silly jingle that begins with "From the Land of Sky Blue Waters" and featuring a cartoon bear. This is what makes Hamm's beer sign stand out on the pundit Walters's book case. 

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Comments for Subscriber Ian - 6/9/20 - Thanks for putting me on to the Smith book. I have mixed feelings about it. The stories of jazz musicians he surrounded himself with are compelling, but I grew tired of the author’s travel narratives, particularly the semi-creepy trip to Japan with the teenage interpreter. I envisioned him growing ever more abusive because 1) she was smarter and more insightful than him, and 2) he couldn’t find a 24 oz. Budweiser or a car to drink it in. 

 

However, the book did lead me to the Jazz Loft Project videos: https://vimeo.com/search?q=jazz+loft+project.

 

 

European Book Experiences

After almost four weeks of traveling in Europe, which included visits to Italy, Czech Republic, Germany, and Slovenia, I am still processing the bookish aspect of this once-in-a-lifetime trip to countries I had only read about. I did not deep-dive into every bookstore since there were a lot of them and only a few of them had English titles. Moreover, I had to be aware that everything I bought had to fit into a small suitcase and to be carried up canal bridge steps, onto trains and through airports. But most importantly, any extensive shopping would cut into my quest for perfect pastries, my pasta and sausage binges washed down with red wine, and just walking around and soaking in sites and neighborhoods with my partner and travel planner extraordinaire Denise Casey.

Here are a few experiences worth mentioning:

Another Country Books – Kreuzberg District, Berlin

My older daughter Cynthia who lives in Berlin insisted that I bring a copy of my collection of essays The Book Shopper to Another Country Books, which is primarily an English bookstore that carries used books for sale and lending. Yes, their business model includes books that they loan out like a public library (hence the threatening poster). The owner graciously added the book to his stacks (yellow pointer), but there is evidently a back log in shelving the books.

I purchased a used copy of Joe Queenan’s book My Goodness: A Cynic’s Short-lived Search for Sainthood (2000) where Queenan takes a year a off from skewering celebrities and institutions to try and make himself a better person. I finished the book, but it didn’t make it to Customs because of space issues (left behind).

 

Shakespeare Books in Prague near The Charles Bridge

This was the best bookstore I visited during the trip since it was mostly English language and it had rooms and rooms full of finely curated fiction, non-fiction, art, politics and history. Since I knew beforehand, I was going to Prague, I pulled out a book by Czech writer Josef Skorvecky (who was forced to emigrate to Canada), which I already had on my shelves. While traveling. I read his short detective novel, The End of Lieutenant Boruvka (1979) which I liked so much, that I picked up a copy of his fourth book in the series, The Return of Lieutenant Boruvka (1991) at Shakespeare Books. The first book was much better than the latter, because the protagonist, the melancholic but savvy Czech detective reflects more on the Czechoslovakia’s struggles under Communism. Even though it has been over 30 years since the Velvet Revolution when the Czech Republic became independent from the Soviets, I still got a sense of that era, and life in this difficult period was further underscored by our local tour guide. 

This series of statues (at the right) is known as  The Memorial to the Victims of Communism.  Located in the Malá Strana district of Prague,  it is dedicated not only to those who were jailed or executed but also others whose lives who were ruined by "totalitarian despotism".

 

Antiquarian Book Stores in Ljubljana, Slovenia 

There were many small bookshops located along the Ljubljanica River that flows down center of Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. In fear of running out of books to read, I picked up some insurance -- a copy of an Amitav Ghosh novel at an outside of one store. Another shop featured a stackable portable display that they set up outdoors by the river during the good weather. The inside of this same store was well-organized, but there were only a few books written in English. Throughout the week we were there, we learned about the history of Slovenia (formerly part of Yugoslavia), I became intrigued about Josep Broz Tito, the post-World War II  Communist leader who stood up to both Hitler and Stalin (but was hardly a choir boy). I asked the book seller to recommend a good biography of Tito but it was available only in Slovene.

Window Displays & More

As the proprietor of Destination Books which had its debut last month at the Decatur Book Festival, I always appreciate unique book displays and here are a few a more that caught my attention.  I begin with  the stackable portable display in Ljubljana that was mentioned earlier.

One of my favorite writers is the Italian Primo Levi (1919-1987), so I appreciated this homage to him in Treviso, Italy.

This Venetian book store window makes it very clear that cruise ships are unwelcome and they have strong opinions about climate disruption as well. 

Denise and I never met a book window we didn't feel worth photographing even if we needed to translate Dante's prose . This  appeared on a store window in Padua, Italy. Google translation: "Facts were not to live as brutes, but to follow knowledge."

 

 

 

Baseball's Hall of Fame Grip

Heretofore the closest I have been to the National Baseball Hall of Fame was reading Richard Ford’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel Independence Day (1995).  Ford’s book is the slow-paced story of a divorced writer-turned-real estate agent who takes his estranged son to both the basketball and baseball Halls of Fame over a 4th of a July weekend.

Considering that Ford describes Cooperstown, New York as a sleepy little burg that closes after 9 p.m. with no mention of late summer crowds, I did not know what to expect.  I did have an idea of a few of the plaques that I wanted to see, but for the most part I just went with the flow and allowed the museum, the idyllic New York village (with many dining choices now),  and the Ommegang Brewery to take its hold on me.

The Plaques

The first floor atrium of that contains the plaques has a cathedral like quality where you stroll into each alcove to peruse over the immortalized players. (And I am not hyperbolizing when I use the word "cathedral" since when I was there during the opening hours a couple was getting married.) What makes the plaques especially interesting is the tight summary of each career which includes statistics and some sense of how the person played the game.

Edgar Charles (Sam) Rice

Ever since a feature article by Steve Wulf appeared Sports Illustrateds, July 19, 1993 issue, I have been intrigued by this player.  He was born Edgar Charles Rice n 1890 in Morocco, Indiana just a few miles from where I grew up in Iroquois County, Illinois. Rice was married in 1908 and he and his wife had two children and moved to Watseka, Illinois the county seat of Iroquois County.  At age 22, while away at baseball tryout in Galesburg, Edgar’s family visited his parents in Morocco and the entire family died in a killer tornado.

Understandably, Rice drifted for several years before ending up with the Washington Senators as a rookie at age 25. He remarried, but kept his previous life a secret on his way to a Hall of Fame career, which included a famous catch in the 1924 World Series against the Pittsburgh Pirates.  Take the link to the Wulf article for the complete and memorable story.

Lee Smith

Until I heard Lee Smith humble induction speech earlier this summer, I bared some resentment to Smith for giving up Steve Garvey’s home run in the 1984 National League Championship Series which eventually led to the San Diego Padres victory over my team The Chicago Cubs.  Over the years, I had softened especially after the Cubs champsionship in 2016.  Smith makes regular appearances at Wrigley Field and Cub broadcasts and he made a simple compelling argument that his lifetime saves record stood for 13 years before it  was eclipsed and he is still third on the number of saves behind Trevor Hoffman and Mariano Rivera.  I like other Hall of Fame Cubs like Billy Williams, Ryne Sandberg, and Ferguson Jenkins, but now I can add the tall right-hander with the "bat-shattering fastball and darting slider to my list of likeable Cubs.

Connie Mack

I was even able to feed my new baseball player obsession --- Cornelius McGillicuddy (1863 -1956) aka Connie Mack. Mack won more games as a manager than anyone else and LOST more games as a manager than anyone else.  At the Willis Monie bookstore on the Main Street of Cooperstown, I picked up the Volume 3 of  Norman Macht’s biography of the player, manager and owner who had a half of a century career with the Philadelphia Athletics. My only regret is that I didn’t browse the store, but to my defense I had spent many hours power browsing The Hall of Fame. Here I am posing for a picture at the 1939 induction ceremony with Babe Ruth on my right, and Connie Mack on my left.

 

Boston Book Shopping

For over a decade I have been visiting Boston to see my older daughter Cynthia which usually includes visits to Boston bookstores, such as Raven Books, the Harvard Book Store and the MIT Press Bookstore. Also in the past, these trips have included visits to various Boston-area landmarks – the Emerald Necklace, Walden Pond and the Lord Hobo bar.

One Boston historical site that has eluded me until recently has been the Walking Tour of the Freedom Trail a 90-minute stroll of historical Boston. Hosted by a guide wearing a three-cornered hat and knee -high compression socks, my tour included the Granary Burial Ground, the Boston Common next to the Massachusetts state house and the scene of the Boston Massacre (all shown in the collage). One caveat, though, is that this is no “trail” per se. When I think of trails, I think of the Oregon Trail, The Trail of Tears, or Roy Rogers (singing “Happy Trails to You”). This “trail” doesn’t have that same vibe, it is buried among the Boston high rise buildings.

In addition to learning about the details of Paul Revere’s ride and that our forefathers were not all choir boys, the Freedom Trail took us near a bookstore that I had not visited in all my years of book shopping in Boston – Commonwealth Books.

Commonwealth Books

After the tour, Cynthia and I walked over and spent considerable time in this used bookstore. This shop embodies the way we like to think about used bookstore: charmingly disheveled and packed but decently organized. Lots of older books of history, biography, fiction of books which I had not seen in years, along with crates of vintage maps, which I always like thumbing through. I found the quotes about writing and books taped to the worn shelves particularly funky and inspirational. It’s a place for book people.

Flush with a renewed interest in American history, I looked for, but failed to find, a paperback copy of Gore Vidal’s Burr. Admittedly I was reluctant to purchase much else as my backpack was already  full and heavy, but Cynthia was not to be denied. She found something worth buying and shipping (at minimum expense) as a gift to my longtime partner Denise – a cookbook Mediterranean Vegetables (2001) by Clifford A. Wright. Cynthia knew that Denise and I are now proud stewards of a community garden plot and for the first time we have an opportunity to grow our own vegetables (eggplant, tomatoes and zucchini are already in the ground). We’ve already tried the recipe for roasted, saffron-infused cauliflower. Thank you, Cynthia and Commonwealth Books.