6 responses to “Back to School at Island Books”

  1. John Marshall

    James,

    I get a nice sense of the busy-ness this time of year for you and Island and other stores. Wow about the No Fear Shakespeare, though. I’ll sound like an aging grump (let X=X) but shouldn’t the teacher be “translating” the Bard into the students’ lives? Ah, class size and low pay and all…. Hopefully some of those young customers will take delicious language and compassionate understanding from the plays some other day.

    Thanks for this tour of your world.

    John

    1. James

      My pleasure, John. Come by and take a real tour some time.

  2. Catherine

    I remember reading Chaucer in college with helpful translations and explanations of unfamiliar words. Seems like that would be a better option, and I am sure there are some similar versions of Shakespeare out there. I wonder how we could change the high school culture to think that is a better compromise. Sad to think that even here on our elite island this sort of easy-way-out is considered acceptable.

    1. James

      It gets worse. Turns out there’s a No Fear version of Hawthorne’s most famous book. They didn’t call it The Red Letter, but I wouldn’t have been surprised if they had.

  3. Mark Holtzen

    I’m still enjoying the thought of Hendrix on a typewriter.

    1. James

      If you want to make it happen in real life, I found the proper accessory for your Selectric.

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