It is now December, & … strange stuffs will be well sold, strange tales well told, strange sights much sought, strange things much bought, and what else as falls out. To conclude, I hold it the costly Purveyor of Excess, and the after-breeder of necessity, the practice of Folly, and the Purgatory of Reason. Farewell. …
Not long ago a book sneaked up on me. The paperback of Valerie Trueblood’s Terrarium hit the shelves of Madison Books, which served as a reminder that I’d had the hardcover sitting unread on my nightstand for far too long. I tried one story in the collection, then another, and kept going until the characters began …
At the end of July, Norton sales rep Dan Christiaens hosted Poetry Night at the Ballpark with the staff of Seattle’s Open Books, and, for some reason, me. Dan gave us all copies of Norton’s Baseball Haiku, too. The crew declaimed some memorized verse between innings, but mostly we just watched the game and had a …
In much of the country, the month began with roaring winter storms, but that wasn’t the case here. Our early March was a lamb, so gentle and solicitous that it brought mint jelly with it and invited Northwesterners to tie on a bib. I accepted the offer and bit into the fair weather with gusto, …
Sunday, November 5th wasn’t marked as a holiday on any calendar, but it was nonetheless one of the most significant dates of the year. That was the day we all reset our clocks (or let our computers do it for us). We woke up to paler skies that morning and drove home from work in …
Ho hum, another Monday morning. Reminded me of that one day in 1979. And we’re probably going to see the exact same thing in 2169. So tedious. But seriously, wasn’t that spectacular? Like you probably were, I was pretty well prepared to see something special. I got hold of a copy of David Baron’s American Eclipse weeks ago. I …
When you work in retail, it’s inevitable that strange things will happen from time to time. Bookstores are probably less susceptible to such encounters than most other kinds of shops, but I’ve seen my share of weirdness. Quite often when I worked at a different, hyper-urban spot, not so much in recent years. However friendly …
Readers who remember my interview with natural history writer David B. Williams already know that he’s at the very top of the list when it comes to covering our region’s past. His study of the myriad modifications our ancestors have made to the local landscape, Too High and Too Steep, was an Island Books Top …
The other day I was trying to exorcise a tenacious earworm the only way I know how, by vocalizing the offending song all the way to the end. So I wandered the house mumble-singing “Me and Julio down by the schoolyard.” My six-year-old daughter, who is far more emotionally astute than she is knowledgeable about …
2016 wasn’t quite two weeks old when I first heard that it was cursed. On top of the usual bad news (Sharaban tea shop, bombing) came the announcement of David Bowie’s death, and something about it, hard on the heels of his most acclaimed record in years, songs that were released on his birthday, seemed …
