A recommended reading list from James Crossley, our A Cup of News columnist: Hope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit, perhaps the best essayist writing today. She’s extremely knowledgeable about how America got to where it is (sample this London Review of Books think piece for some of her analysis of the current situation), and …
The dog days are here, that time of year when the hours dilate and each shift behind the bookstore counter seems to extend beyond the clock’s capacity to measure. At Island Books, this happens in August, a month when we slow things down by cutting back on special events and giving the staff a chance …
My daughter’s last year of co-op preschool just came to end, but we parents weren’t let off the hook without attending one final evening meeting. We do this regularly in late spring, gathering to talk school business, elect board members for the coming year, and listen to an expert give us advice about child-rearing. This …
Got a disturbing email the other day, so much so that I sat down and wrote a response that ran several thousand words. A series of responses, actually, all fits and starts of alternating analysis, complaint, explanation, and suggestion that refused to be driven toward a conclusion. I threw all of it away when I …
I once dressed for a masquerade party as a character from Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. Tyrone Slothrop is–well, I’m not sure if he’s the protagonist, a linchpin, a point of focus, or what. In any case, he’s an army lieutenant deployed in Europe during World War II, and at various points in the novel …
I spend most of my time here talking about how great indie bookstores are (and they are great) but I thought it might be interesting for a change to talk about a couple of failures, times when we at Island Books couldn’t seem to find what a customer wanted. A co-worker of mine, whose customer …
As I sit in the wood-paneled study atop my ivory tower, hemmed in on all sides by esoteric works of fiction, I begin to wonder how I came to this place. On one wall are slim volumes that refract and reflect each other like a Borgesian hall of mirrors, and on another are fat epics …
How was your holiday? I’m sure your Seder was convivial and you looked absolutely fetching in your new Easter duds, but that’s not what I’m asking about. I mean World Book Day on April 23rd. Don’t tell me you didn’t celebrate, not with all the different things you could have done to take part. Like …
I don’t know a single person in retail who likes Christmas carols. Booksellers are no exception. Having Bing Crosby piped into their ears year after year tends to to turn them a little grinchy, I suppose. And that’s not all they have to deal with. Take the longest, most exhausting shopping day you can imagine—hours …
This painting by Norman Rockwell is the quintessence of Thanksgiving, isn’t it? You can almost taste the turkey and the tradition. It’s a great depiction of the things that make us want to gather to express our gratitude—family, friends, and the bounty of the autumn table. Did you know it’s actually a springtime picture, though? …
