NW Book Lovers
From the Pacific NW Booksellers Association | promoting independents since 1965
  • Find a store
  • NW authors
  • Classifieds
  • Browse
    • N.W. Voices: Essays
    • Conversations: Interviews
    • The Storefront: NW booksellers
    • Face Out:
      Bookseller recommended
    • One Nightstand:
      Reader recommended
    • Award Winners
    • A Cup of News
    • Best Foot Forward
    • Doodles
    • Reading-Related Rambles
    • The Shelf Talker
    • Turning Pages
  • Indie NW Bestsellers
  • About Us
Browse: Home / Ablutions: Notes for a Novel

Ablutions: Notes for a Novel

Feb

15

2012

When a Bookstore Was Hell on Earth, an Essay by 2012 PNBA Award Winner Patrick deWitt

A familiar scenario from my childhood: My father and I are driving in his truck. I’m six years old, it’s summer break in Southern California, a sunny Saturday morning, and we’re heading to the beach. I’ve eaten two bowls of sugar cereal and I’m spun out, frantic to get in the water. The ocean comes …

Search

Facebook icon Twitter icon Instagram icon
What are you reading?

Advertising information

We recommend

Of N.W. interest

  • Book Nook Bits for Teens
  • Brad Craft: Used Buyer
  • Brian Doyle: Complete Epiphanies
  • Literary Arts
  • Northwest Passages Book Club
  • NW Book Talk
  • Oregon Humanities
  • Poetry Northwest
  • Seattle City of Lit Map
  • Seattle Indie Bookstore Day
  • Seattle Literary Map
  • Writing the Northwest

Of national interest

  • Authors Against Book Bans
  • Bookstore Romance Day
  • Christian Science Monitor
  • Independent Bookstore Day
  • Indie Bob Spot
  • largehearted boy
  • Literary Hub
  • Live Wire Radio's Open Book Podcast
  • New York Times Books
  • NPR Books
  • Salon.com
  • The Book Man
  • The Rumpus

On the industry

  • Book Publishers Northwest News
  • Bookselling This Week
  • PW Daily
  • Shelf Awareness

For library lovers

  • ALA READ Poster Series
  • EarlyWord
  • Home
  • Find an Indie Bookstore Near You!
  • NW authors
  • Classifieds
  • Indie NW Bestsellers
  • About Us

© 2010-2026 NW Book Lovers

A production of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association.