It's That Strangest of Weeks

It's between Christmas and New Year's, that peculiar time which doesn't exactly fit anywhere.  School is still on vacation, people are still traveling, and no one wants even one more piece of chocolate.  Well, maybe just one.  I'm sure you got everything you wanted for the holiday season, but if not, we can still help you out.  Maybe you didn't get The Autobiography of Mark Twain; we've got it in stock, like we did all through the shopping season.  Perhaps you heard good things about Decoded by Jay-Z, and were thinking you should check it out, only Santa didn't put it under the tree.  Don't worry.  We've got that one, too.

On the other hand, maybe you did get what you wanted, and what you wanted was a gift card or the always festive cash.  Perhaps even now you're wondering what to do with that.  Here's a few suggestions that might have gone under the radar: Tartine Bread, a beautiful bread baking book that will make your house smell lovely all through the chilly winter months; the other Bill Bryson book of the season, Seeing Further (he edited it, and it's kind of connected to his Short History of Nearly Everything).  Or the delightful It's A Book, about a donkey presented with a strange new thing.  Seattle, Then and Now has a new revised edition showing all the ways in which this city has changed over the years; and then there's a favorite of mine for the season, How To Live, or, A Life of Montaigne, a truly charming volume about the world's first essayist and his wondrous, delightful life.

And if nothing here has tickled your fancy, you can just wait a couple of more days until it's 2011, and come in for our calendar sale.  50% off almost all of our wall, engagement and page a day calendars.  It begins January 1, when we're open 12-5 because of the holiday, and then continues from there.  The widest selection is at the start, so come early to get something lovely.  Or several somethings, and make a collage?

Happy New Year, everyone.

Welcome home, Espresso Book Machine!

Day One of training has come to an end. It turns out our model is perfect. I tried to stump the engineer with troubles other operators have had. For example, the “fat book flop” when a 600 page tome splays open during the binding process and can’t be muscled back into position. “We’ve installed a shield for that.” How about the need for waxing the shoot through which the cover passes, making it slippery enough to overcome accidental friction. “That’s been redesigned completely.” I don’t know if it’s pride, but I believe him: our book machine is god-like. In a heavily wired, robotic kind of way.

***

All day bookstore staff piled recommendations on my desk of titles for test printing. Goody Two Shoes, a children’s book classic from the 18th century. Charles Lamb’s Essays of Elia (“the most delightful of English essayists”) and the winner, first out of the gate, was Edmond Meany’s 1901 dissertation, Chief Joseph, the Nez Perce. Steve, our lit guy who harbors a secret passion for out of print NW history books (who knew?), handed me a photo of Edmond Meany, one-time University of Washington professor, standing over the seated Chief Joseph. Yes, they actually hung out together. We printed the large-format book successfully, complete with the signatures of Meany’s advisory committee.

It has been a great highly-caffeinated first day.

- The Book Barista

Our Little Love Peddler

Our very own Elizabeth, from the Gifts o' Love Department, has been busily constructing a virtual Ziggurat of romance: mountains of Seattle Chocolates' Assorted Chocolate Truffles in heart-shaped boxes, heaping piles of traditional Necco Sweethearts ("BE MINE") red & white Nerds Rope, rubber Love Rats, and on and on.

And don't forget books! How to Talk to Girls, by nine year old Alec Greven, from Collins, is just full of the kind of advice only a man of his years and experience could have to give. The Art of Romance: Mills & Boon and Harlequin Cover Designs, by Joanna Bowring and Margaret O'Brien, from Prestel, is a fabulous, full-color romp through the glory days of the chaste booty lit. of an earlier era. Dating Makes You Want to Die, But You Have to Do It Anyway: Getting Through the Absurdity of Dating with Your Soul Intact, by Daniel Holloway and Dorothy Robinson, from Collins Living, may help you survive the Season of Passion. And finally, Six-Word Memoirs on Love & Heartbreak, by Writers Famous & Obscure, edited by Smith Magazine, from Harper Perennial, is full of six-word wisdom like this from Matt Ruff, "She knows what my Kryptonite is."

So stop in and consult the Love Peddler. She's waiting to hook you up.

Further Thoughts on Stacey's Bookstore and the Passing of the Independents

Since my first posting on the sad news that Stacey's Bookstore in San Francisco had announced it will be closing in March after 85 years in San Francisco, I've been following the story online and through friends in San Francisco.  On Facebook I was encouraged to discover a "grassroots" effort organizing to "Save Stacey's Bookstore."  I've also heard from many people, online and off, expressing shock and dismay at the news.  On behalf of Independent Booksellers everywhere, let me extend my thanks to all the good people out there who care about where they buy their books and from whom.  What we do, and the opportunity to do it, depends on just such thoughtful, community-minded patrons.  We have always been, and continue to be grateful for your support, and your business.  And if I may still presume to speak for the booksellers at Stacey's, I'm sure they are just as grateful for the many new and familiar voices joining the chorus now rising to try to save that venerable bookstore.

In my reading online, I have also discovered just how many people there are out there who seem to misunderstand the nature of just what it is we do; assuming, for example, that the prices of the books we sell are a matter of choice for independent retailers, that discounts to customers and variety of selection are dictated exclusively, or even primarily by considerations of profit and promotion, and that even the continued viability of independent bookselling is ultimately more a matter of management and competition than it is a matter of cultural or community significance.  Let me try, in my own unbusinesslike way, to address some of these points, as briefly and as well as I can in this space.

Without becoming too mired in the jargon of bookselling and publishing, let me just begin by suggesting that the whole business of books is, has always been, and Gods willing, will always be an irrational, impractical and frankly foolhardy enterprise.  The suggestion that anyone can, or has, or ought to make a proper, well organized, smooth-running machine of Market Capitalism out of writing, printing, publishing or selling books, is as familiar, and touching to booksellers, however humble, as it is to anyone else who may have spent their lives in the service of books.  Many a better man and woman of business than me has been broken on that wheel.  Business, and in particular the business of books, has seen many an entrepreneur rise and fall in the tide of print.  Many have made fortunes, or at least reputations as innovators and great capitalists from books, from the man who opened bookstalls in Victorian train-stations, to the popularizer of classics in paperback, to Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com.   Each is to be well remembered and applauded for their contributions to the culture as well as for their business acumen  and willingness to risk their own and other people's money in such, for the time, questionably profitable gambles.  But for every innovator in publishing and selling, there have always been hundreds or possibly even thousands of less daring souls, readers and retailers, bibliophiles and buyers and tradesmen more like... well, me.

We no more set the price of a hardcover from Random House than we determine the value of Amazon.com stock.  And we live, as do the independent publishers, the freelance writers, editors and translators, and, it would seem, the readers and collectors of less established, or well remembered authors, on the narrow margins of solvency, not because we are reckless or stupid or undisciplined, but because what we love is the company of books more perhaps than we do the business of books, and will, it seems, often as not, sacrifice, to our own ultimate ruin perhaps, the latter to secure the former.

A short discounted title from an academic press on an obscure subject?  But surely, Stacey's must have at least a copy of such a book on the shelf when, and if, the right customer comes in to find just such a book?  Else how will the reader know he or she needs it?  Not one, or even a few of the newest or the best books on Lincoln for the University Book Store, but all the titles we can get that might be worth having when we set up a display table to celebrate the Bicentennial of his birthday, else are we not doing a disservice to our customers and to the writers and scholars who have labored to preserve our history and his memory?

And if we can not discount the New York Times Bestsellers list as a result, or choose to promote our own selection instead... And if we can not sell every bestselling new children's title at prices to compete with Costco, but choose to celebrate the PNBA Lifetime Achievement Award winner Alexandra Day by carrying every available title in multiple copies instead... 

That is the value that is lost in the passing of Stacey's.  Those who criticize or sneer at the incompetence of the independent bookstore in the face of the more elegant and profitable business model of the chain store, or whose purchasing is dictated by the automated suggestions provided by the wizardry of online marketing, rather miss the point.  We do not do this, and Stacey's did not do what they did for 85 years, because we, or they, hoped one day to be rich as the result of of our labour.  We, and they, did and do consider ourselves rich in the books and authors we've known, the customers we've met, the generations whose reading and opinions we've cultivated and cared about, in the culture we've supported and sold.  We simple booksellers, in all our enthusiasm and old-fashioned amateurism, have done what we do because we believe, ultimately, more in the supremacy of the word than the dollar.  

And if that sounds too grand for such as us, perhaps it is.  We are ultimately peddlers, not artists.  But do please at least give us this: should Stacey's, and all like it, be allowed to go, do you really think the world will be a more art-full, or a better place?  Or will it be, simply, a more profitable and convenient market?  Nothing wrong with that, of course.  As you like it.

Meanwhile, my thoughts and my heart go to Stacey's and all who still love the books, and the booksellers therein.  

Lincoln Remainders

Our Discount Books buyers have been scouting for Lincoln books, and the first few are in. Remainders, for any who might not know the bookseller lingo, are titles the publishers are discontinuing so the remaining stock is sold off at a higher discount, meaning lower prices for readers.

The prices are great, but the quantities are limited, so if you want any of these, you'd best hurry in before they are gone. (Once they're gone, they're gone for good.)

Just a few titles:

Holland's Life of Abraham Lincoln is one of the first major Lincoln biographies, published not long after Lincoln's death, by the founder of Scribner's Magazine. $7.98 in paperback.

Lincoln in The Times: The Life of Abraham Lincoln as Originally Reported in The New York Times, edited by David Herbert Donald and Harold Holzer -- two names that should be familiar to Lincoln readers (and to readers of this blog.) $8.98 in hardcover.

Father Abraham: Lincoln's Relentless Struggle to End Slavery, by Richard Striner. $9.98 in hardcover.

Black Men Built the Capital: Discovering African-American History in and Around Washington, D.C., by Jesse Holland -- referenced in a number of recent articles about the incoming administration and the changing face of the Nation's capital. Only $5.98 in paperback.

Many more to come, so keep an eye on this blog and the Bargain Books tables in the main lobby!

Taking an Old Friend to Bed

Opening to an essay called "My Books," I find the following:

"Sitting, last winter, among my books, and walled round with all the comfort and protection which they and my fireside could afford me; to wit, a table of high piled books at my back, my writing-desk on one side of me, some shelves on the other, and the feeling of the warm fire at my feet; I began to consider how I loved the authors of those books, -- how I loved them, too, not only for the imaginative pleasures they afforded me, but for their making me love the very books themselves, and delight to be in contact with them."

I love Leigh Hunt.  He makes me love the very books themselves, and delight to be in contact with them.  I'm taking my Essays of Leigh Hunt upstairs with me now, to read a bit more before I go to sleep.

Inscriptions, the Destructive Endearments

As a used books seller, I confess to disliking inscriptions. I've been chastised by family and friends for tipping in a card when giving the gift of a book. I can't anymore bring myself to actually write in a book.

There are inscriptions and then there are inscriptions, of course. "Love from Aunt Dot" in pencil and dated "1879" is actually rather sweet -- and erase-able. But there are those who feel that the blank endpapers of a hardcover are just too much like actual stationary to resist letter writing. Of these scribblers, I despair.

I've just come across a fascinating site, dedicated to collecting inscriptions from books. The Book Inscriptions Project woulds seem to me to be one of those undertakings for which the Internet seems to have uniquely purposed. Check it out, when you have the chance.

Santa, Where's my Jetpack?!!!

If one is of a certain age, certain promises were made in childhood -- by The Wide World of Disney, filmstrips, and exhibitions at the State Fair -- and by now, we should all be eating meals cooked by voice-command, vacationing on the moon, and most importantly commuting to work by jetpack.

Never happened. Lies, all lies.

Some consolation came into the store recently though, in the form of a new book by Mac Montandon, Jetpack Dreams: One Man's Up and Down (But Mostly Down) Search for the Greatest Invention That Never Was.

Here in one handsome, hardcover book is the whole ugly, heartbreaking and frequently hilarious story of what really happens when one tries to fly by putting rockets in one's backpack. A sad and sorry business it has been, but a very good book has resulted.

Getting Ready for a Christmas Party

The house has been cleaned.  My beloved is washing, ironing and starching the kitchen curtains as I write this.  There is beer in the garage and wine in the cupboard.  The Christmas tree is lit, and so will the guests be, with any luck and baring bad weather, tomorrow night at eight.  So what's left to do?

Well, I'll tell you.  There's a big old ugly stack of unshelved, unsorted books slap in the middle of my office.  That's as far as the strays have gone; not on the shelves, not boxed, not even kicked under the daybed.  It's after eleven at night, I have to work tomorrow, and I can't face sorting books at this hour.

Now my dear friend Judith is coming home with me from the store at five, and the party's not scheduled to kick off until eight.  I could ask her to help.  She'd be only too willing to do whatever is asked of her.  She's the dearest creature on Earth.  But can I really ask her to box books after spending the day in a bookstore?  At the Holidays?

And I know what would happen if I did.  We'd end up sitting on the floor, books scattered about the room, chatting our way through the lot, and accomplishing not a damned thing.  There might be a glass or two of wine involved, I dare say.

I think the only solution is a tarp.  I can say that we're renovating.  Or use a tablecloth and make it a serving area.

These are the hosting issues when one owns too many books and too few shelves.  Luckily, I think my guests, being bookish themselves, will understand and forgive.  

And we do need flat surfaces for folks to set their drinks down.  

Maybe I'll just shelve the Walter Savage Landor before I go to bed.  Hate to see anything spill on Walter Savage Landor.

I will NOT buy another book about Samuel Johnson... okay, maybe I will

There are two new, well reviewed, biographies of Doctor Samuel "Dictionary" Johnson. This is marvelous news -- if I didn't already own half a dozen biographies of same. What to do?

Now the curious thing about Sam Johnson is that he is, of course, the subject of the greatest biography in the English language: James Boswell's Life. I own two editions of this (that I remember;) an Everyman's Library edition and a six volume edition, edited by Augustine Birrell, from 1901 that I've painfully had to "restore" at least twice, having read it almost to bits. In addition, though it's out-of-print, there is the almost equally wonderful memoir of Johnson's great friend and last love Hester Thrale Piozzi.

Not enough though. I own two delightful out-of-print books by James Lowry Clifford; Young Sam Johnson and Dictionary Johnson, both worth finding and reading still, Liz Picard's book on Johnson's London, and on and on...

So why contemplate reading and buying two more? Well, Jeffrey Meyer's Samuel Johnson: The Struggle may prove too juicy not to want to swallow whole. I took it to lunch yesterday and took a bite or two. I looked up Oliver Goldsmith in the index -- my first rule when considering a book about Johnson and his circle is always to check the biographer's attitude to sweet, silly, brilliant Goldsmith -- anyone who doesn't love Goldy is no friend of mine. Good rule. Meyers passed. I then moved on to read the bits about Johnson's sexual peculiarities that are getting Meyers so much press.

Shocking, my dears, wonderfully, delightfully shocking. And touching. And, damn, now I think I have to own the Meyers.

Today for lunch I'm having a slice or two of Peter Martin's Samuel Johnson: A Biography. Recommended by Harold Bloom (oh dear,) but also by Henry Hitchings, who wrote a very good book I also own, Dr. Johnson's Dictionary: The Extraordinary Story of the Book That Defined the World. I read Martin's introduction, and now, I fear, I may have to have this one too.

What's wrong with that?! I will have to try and sneak them home if I do, as I'm already being frowned at in that quarter for the haul I brought home on Employee Shopping Days.

But this is Dr. Johnson! How can I not? Right?! right?

Vivian, oh Vivian, say have you met Vivian?

Vivian Gornick is a wonder. If you've never read her, trust me, she is a marvelous writer; essayist, memoirist, and critic. Her latest book is an attractive little book of critical essays called The Men in My Life. In each essay she takes on one male writer or more, and has her way with them -- critically of course. I read the book at a run and enjoyed every essay. In particular, I would recommend the essay on V. S. Naipaul & James Baldwin, which is perhaps the most natural, if surprising comparison I've come across recently, at least, when Gornick makes it. (This is typical of all her literary criticism, and her writing in general. Her style is pellucid and her approach invariably fresh and considered.)

And if her literary criticism doesn't attract you, do please read Fierce Attachments, a memoir, as it is not to be missed.

Good Science Makes Good Reading

There are a number of elegant new titles available this Holiday Season, all perfectly suited to the more strictly rational types on your list.

The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments, by George Johnson is a favorite. Johnson, the New York Time science writer describes the often surprising moments of insight that brought us some of our greatest breakthroughs, from Galileo to Galvini.

About 13 Things That Don't Make Sense: The Most Baffling Scientific Mysteries of our Time, by Michael Brooks, our own Jason said in his recent Staff Favorite: "... written for the curious layman (a blessing if you, like me, enjoy science but can get a bit lost,) but grapples with some of the deepest issues in science. Fascinating!"

Sun in a Bottle: The Strange History of Fusion and the Science of Wishful Thinking, by Charles Seife (the author of Zero,) tells a story -- ongoing -- of man's quest to master the power of the sun, or at the very least, understand it.

Michio Kaku, who's earlier Hyperspace was a favorite a few seasons back, has written a wonderful new book on the border between modern science and science fiction -- Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel.

Two beloved skeptics have new books out, both as necessary and entertaining as any either has offered before. Robert L. Park, whose Voodoo Science was one of the best defenses of the rational in the face of the ongoing onslaught of goofy pseudoscience still so popular today, has written a new book Superstition: Belief in the Age of Science. Perfect for defending one's self against the fire-breathing Aunts when attendance at early morning Christmas services are being insisted upon. And Michael Shermer, the publisher of Skeptic Magazine, and a hero, has The Mind of the Market: Compassionate Apes, Competitive Humans, and Other Tales from Evolutionary Economics.

A surprise bestsellers from our "Books That Scare Us" display for Halloween, Frank Close's new book The Void, is described as "an exploration of nothing." Look into it.

Everyday Survival: Why Smart People Do Stupid Things, by Laurence Gonzales, offers a scientific perspective on the everyday, seemingly harmless dangers of daily life. Is that a stick on the ground, or a snake?

And finally, The Alchemy of Air: A Jewish Genius, a Doomed Tycoon, and the Scientific Discovery That Fed the World but Fueled the Rise of Hitler, by Thomas Hager, tells a remarkable story of the great glory and unintended consequences of scientific discovery.

What (BOOK) are you thankful for?

As Thanksgiving approaches, it seems a good moment to reflect, and give Thanks for the books we treasure, use, love, remember and or read again and again. We want you to join us: send us a title or author you are thankful for. We'll continue to add to this post through Thanksgiving. Just send me an email at ubs_usedbooks@earthlink.net and I will post your entry with ours. So, be sure to check back for more titles. Herewith, a selection from our staff and friends:

Very Far Away From Anywhere Else, by Ursula K. LeGuin.

"I am thankful for this book because it reflects a voice that is rarely heard from in young adult novels, a voice which, at one time, I really needed to hear. I think that voice still resonates with a certain uncommon type of kid."

David, Mill Creek, New & Used Books

Pride & Prejudice, by Jane Austen

"I am thankful for "Pride & Prejudice" because a world without Austen would be a bleak one indeed. It is always the perfect antidote to whatever's bugging me, and it's the only book I've read more than twice (as an adult). And I'm not telling how many times that might be. (And please notice I didn't even mention Colin Firth.)"

Mary, Seattle, New & Used Books

Frederick, by Leo Lionni
"I owe much of my slant on life to this children's book. It's about a family of very industrious mice who are all preparing for the long, cold winter. Frederick, however, seems to be off in another world, dreaming of colors and poetry and sunshine and all the really good things in life. When the winter comes, they are ready, but soon run out of food and things to say. They ask Frederick for his supplies and he climbs a rock and waxes rhapsodic about the colors of the flowers and describes the sunshine so well that they can almost feel it. Then he makes up a poem and they all proclaim him a poet, having been blessed with the very necessary supplies he has brought. Though it contains a simple lesson, it made me see that the spiritual, creative, artistic things in life are as important as the food we eat and the clothes we wear. I am grateful to have read this book as a child and to have had it as an early book which I learned to read for myself. I still have a copy among my collection of more "learn-ed" books."

Tom, Seattle, Textbooks

The Wisdom of No Escape and the Path of Loving-Kindness, by Pema Chodron

"Thumbs up to anything Pema writes. (Yes, we're on a first-name-basis :) )This is an earlier title, but the essential truths are there. And you've gotta love the title; resistance to life and all its messiness is futile.Love who you are. Namaste."

Jan, Seattle, New & Used Books

Help Me Live: 20 Things People with Cancer Want You to Know, by Lori Hope
"This last year, I had two friends and a close relative diagnosed with cancer. Hope's book had sane, practical suggestions to get me though. It was good to have some tools to get through these times. Some of these suggestions I've tried to work into my daily life."

Ed, Seattle, Textbooks

Reclaiming History, by Vincent Bugliosi

"A magnificent, ne plus ultra contrapuntal of each and every part of all conspiracy theories claiming Oswald was not alone, or even innocent of the assassination of JFK.

In 1518 splendid pages, Bugliosi demolishes the vast array of conspiracy literature and presents an exhaustively detailed account of the Warren Report and its irrefutable conclusion: Oswald was strictly a one-man operation.

I am tremendously grateful for this brilliantly reasoned and thoroughly researched work."

Pete, Seattle, Supplies Department

Notre Dame de Paris, (The Hunchback of Notre-Dame) by Victor Hugo

"This magnificent novel gave me my first glimpse of Paris -- my most beloved city! I recommend the revised translation by Catherine Liu."

Nancy, Seattle, New & Used Books

The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck

"For one, it is inadvertently how I met my partner, and meeting someone through a book is awesome. But it also marked a turning point in my education when I began to fall in love with both Literature and American history. Above all, The Grapes of Wrath showed me how Cultural History can be told through Literature by making significant historical moments accessible through the lives of characters--and for that I am grateful. "

Anna, Events

Cascade Alpine Guide, by Fred Beckey

"I'm hard-pressed to choose just one piece of great literature to be thankful for, but one book (or, technically speaking, three) I am truly thankful for is Fred Beckey's Cascade Alpine Guide -- Vol. 1, Vol. 2, and Vol. 3 [3ed forthcoming in January, 2009.] It is without a doubt the indispensable guide to the unbeaten track in Washington's back country, and it is the source for ambitious plans and endless daydreams for any lover of high and remote places (within driving distance!)."

Geoff, Seattle, New & Used Books

The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk, by Randy Shilts

"Freshman year in college, I read this book in one night, finishing as the sun came up. Then I carried it to my first class and read it aloud to my classmates. This book changed my life. 'Hope will never be silent.' -- Harvey Milk"

Brad, Seattle, New & Used Books

Lucky Jim, by Kingsley Amis

"The book has a wonderful scene in which precariously employed university teacher Jim, enduring an arty weekend at the home of his department head, returns from a late night bolt to the local and manages to burn several holes in his sheets with an errant cigarette. Faced with the certain wrath of his host and even more terrifying hostess, Jim cleverly disguises the charring by hacking all traces of it out of the bedding entirely. The book is hilarious, but I'm most grateful for a brilliant solution to a common guest dilemma which I've used on many occasions."

Kay, IT

This Is All: Pillow Book Of Cordelia Kenn , by Aidan Chambers

"This is a complex, incredibly rich exploration of the nature of being human -- uniquely put together as a diary, 'pillow book' style. I feel my knowledge has stretched and my understanding of others has been enriched by reading and rereading this book. This is a future 'masterpiece' of Young Adult fiction."

Denis, Seattle, Supplies Department

More, More, More, Said the Baby, by Vera Williams

"In addition to the more obvious reasons (it's a beautiful and sweet book, it's been selling steadily since it came out in 1990) I am thankful for this book because it exists. I have a 6 month old godson and he's not white like me. When he's 27, I'm still going to be that lady who's been stubbornly giving him books since he was born. But there are several things I definitely don't want to do. I don't want to give him books filled with pages of kids who don't look like him (children's books are predominately white, and, although that is starting to change, it’s hard finding books with ethnic families that aren’t didactic). I don't want to cop out and give him books about animals. I want to show him the world and give him all kinds of books; I want him to see all sorts of people and families and not single him out in any way.That is where this book comes in. It is a tiny colorful board book with three mini-vignettes about love starring three different babies, with three different families. Although it doesn't showcase all the kinds of families in the world, it doesn't draw attention to the differences either. It is open ended, beautiful and exactly the book for my little godson."
Kitri, Seattle, New & Used Books

The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne

"This year I am most thankful for this book. It has changed my life and way of thinking forever. Immediately after reading it I went out and bought the novie version, watched it, and made all my friends watch it. Now we are all connected on a level I never even knew existed. After applying the secret to my daily life, everything started going my way, i'm happy almost all the time, and I never struggle with depression anymore. I've discovered life... and you can too by simply opening your mind and trusting it."

Alysia, Bellevue, General Merchandise

The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Modern Library Edition)
"This is one of the books that I have become most thankful for, specifically Emerson's essay 'Nature.' The influence of this work and many of his other writings were monumental to the American environmental movement. "Nature" was originally published anonymously in 1836, and then reissued in 1847. The essay describes a philosophy of nature, using the 'indirections of nature itself upon the soul; the sunrise, the haze of autumn, the winter starlight seem interlocutors; the prevailing sense is that of an exposition in poetry; a high discourse, the voice of the speaker seems to breathe as much from the landscape as from his own breast; it is Nature communing with the seer.'Henry David Thoreau read 'Nature' when he was a senior at Harvard College. Emerson was highly influential to Thoreau as a friend, mentor and writer. We can see this clearly in Thoreau's work, "Walden." Thoreau himself was an inspiration to John Muir and Frederick Law Olmstead, as well as, Aldo Leopold and Joseph Wood Krutch."

Terri, Seattle, New & Used Books

The White Tiger, by Aravind Adiga

"I’ve read The White Tiger twice. It’s my favorite novel of 2008, and was the winner of the 2008 Man Booker Prize. For once the Booker judges got it right!"

Nick, HUB, New & Used Books

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll

"I'm thankful to Lewis Carroll for making my childhood imagination inescapable to this day."

Damon, Seattle, Security

Wait Till the Moon is Full, by Margaret Wise Brown

"One of my favorite childhood memories is of my mother reading this picture book to me, night after night, as I borrowed it again and again from the Public Library. When I couldn't borrow it again, my Mom typed the story out for me (on a manual typewriter back then,) so that she could still read it to me. Her recognition of my need for that story was just one of the ways she loved me so well. Everytime I read it now, to my daughter, I feel the love and warmth that I felt when my mother read it to me."

Lauren, Seattle, Kids' Books

The Manticore, by Robertson Davies

"David Staunton, a brilliant emotionally malnourished lawyer, undergoes a year of Jungian analysis after the violent death of his father. Davies' riveting narration of the resistance, acceptance and integration of Staunton's relationship with himself make this book worth sharing. I am grateful for the psychological insights that this book has brought to me and all who have read it."

Ann, Seattle, New & Used Books

The Florist's Daughter, by Patricia Hampl

"I read this book a year after my mother's death. It got me past her decline and helped me remember she led a proud and interesting life before she became a cranky old lady."

Debbie, Seattle, New & Used Books

50 Simple Things Kids Can Do to Save the Earth, by the Earthworks Group

"I was given this book in the 3rd Grade and it was my first exposure to the concept that we can & need to watch how we interact with the Earth. Essentially, it began my dedication to and love for the environment."

Danielle, Events

The Complete Stories, by Franz Kafka

"Upon reading the story 'A Hunger Artist' as a youth I finally understood the much-talked about 'power of literature.' Kafka described it best when he said 'a book ought to be an icepick to break up the frozen seas within us.' I am also very thankful that Kafka's friend Max Brod did not destroy Kafka's writings as he had wished upon his death.

Jay, Head Trade Books Buyer

A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L'Engle

"I am thankful that in 1962 this book was finally published (thank you FSG!) after being shopped around unsuccessfully. A year later it was placed in my hands by my teacher Miss Johnson. I was wowed. Finally, a real book! After years of ingesting dreadful 1950's kids books (biographies of John Paul Jones and Robert Fulton, anyone?), "A Wrinkle in Time" stretched my mind, yet comforted me with the clear message that being different was way more then just OK, it was the way to be. You can't ask for much more than that. "

Mark, UBS Seattle, New & Used Books

Good Omens, by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett

"This is the book I go to when it seems like the world has just gotten to be too insane. I read it and laugh myself silly and realize that reality is not as crazy as I thought it was."

Sandy, UBS Personnel

Snow Country, Yasunari Kawabata

"This was the first modern Japanese novel I ever read and it is a masterpiece! I went on to learn Japanese in college and become a translator, mostly because I read this book when I was nineteen."

Anita, UBS Customer

The Last Cavalier, by Alexander Dumas

"I'm thankful to find a previously unknown book by my favorite novelist at my favorite bookstore! Thank you University Book Store."

Martin, UBS Customer

A Random Walk Down Wall Street, by Burton G. Malkiel
With all the craziness currently taking place in the economy and its various effects on the securities markets (mostly protracted and steep declines in stocks), many people are worried about what the future holds and, specifically, are concerned about their retirement accounts. This environment can cause irrational behavior based on emotion, such as panic-selling stocks when prices are very low. Many of the stocks being sold at current levels were panic-bought when prices were rising dramatically. This behavior represents the exact opposite of a sound investment approach.

A Random Walk Down Wall Street, which was written 35 years ago and has been revised at least 8 times, provides practical advice on the complex world of investments and other financial matters each of us deals with in some fashion. It reminds us that what the markets are going through right now has been experienced numerous times in the past for many different reasons (history repeats itself...) and that they have always recovered. The book emphasizes that the best investment results come through a steady, rational approach that focuses on proper asset allocation, using low-cost investment vehicles (index funds), dollar-cost averaging, and sticking to a well thought out plan no matter what happens in the markets over short periods of time.

I re-read this book during the 1999-2000 dot-com boom when the NASDAQ Composite Index was climbing to its high of 5,049 and everyone seemed to be jumping aboard for the ride, many near the very top. I was tempted to follow suit so that I wasn't the only one that "missed out." I didn't succumb. The index is now at around 1,525. The clear message the book provides is to not freak out and do irrational things when the markets are soaring or diving. Thanks, Burt, for words of wisdom that are anything but random.

Bryan, UBS CEO

Cars, Trucks and Things That Go, by Richard Scarry

"I am thankful for this book because it helped me tremendously when I was 10-years old. I had an accident where I crashed through a glass door, rendering my right hand and wrist a Freddy Kruger mess. This book was my refuge as I turned page after page on numerous hospital visits for physical rehabilitation. I memorized all of the characters, their busy world, and the wonderful colors. This book is still fun to revisit when I need to recharge. "

David, UBS Bellevue, New & Used Books

Does ThisClutter Make My Butt Look Fat? by Peter Walsh
"I am profoundly grateful for the wake-up call that this book gave me. As Oprah says, it changed my life."

Joe, UBS Seattle, New & Used Books

Broken for You, by Stephanie Kallos

"This story took me into my own neighborhood as it was when I moved here 10 years ago. The rich details of landmarks like Lalani Lanes brought me back to places I can no longer visit except through imagination or mememory.

Her weaving of the lives of two women from different generations reminded me that friendship is possible between anyone.

I also enjoyed the unusual solution for removing unwanted bagage while creating art. I was inspired to take my own art in a new direction.

This is a story worth lingering over. As I neared the end of the book, I found I slowed down so I could savor the writing like a hot cup of tea on a cold day. For me, Broken for You is a gift."

Shawn, UBS Seattle, Art Supplies

The Journals of Lewis & Clark, edited by Bernard DeVoto

"We proceeded on..." This is the poignant, hopeful and determined phrase that recurs again and again in this masterpiece of American History. This one volume edition of the much larger original work is edited and annotated by Pulitzer Prize winning historian and writer Bernard DeVoto, and it's my favorite book in the world. Few of us will ever tackle all seven volumes of the original, but DeVoto's abridgement provides the narrative, the energy, and the breathtaking drama, and adds crucial information in his introduction and copious notes. And most importantly, he resists the impulse to 'improve' the Captains' grammar & spelling, so we experience the adventure in their own words -- the 'musqutors are verry troublesom,' 'the grisley beare (is) a very large & turrible animal,' and, at the last, after walking across the continent, 'the ocian in view -- O! the joy.'

Grab a copy of this book, a map of the West, and enjoy one of the central experiences of the American story."

KZ, UBS Seattle, New & Used Books

The Yearling, by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

"I received this big yellow book for Christmas one year from my parents and so enjoyed reading it aloud to my mom just last year. This particular edition I treasure, with illustrations by N. C. Wyeth, is Out of Print, but the book is still an enjoyable and evocative read of life in the Florida swampland."

Karen, UBS Seattle, New & Used Books

Someone at a Distance, by Dorothy Whipple.

"When Mary at UBS handed the book to me, I was in love right away. Originally published in 1953, Whipple's novel delves into the lives of minds of a married couple and the woman who schemes her way between them. The writing is crisp, insightful and accomplished. I am thankful for this book because it shows just how powerful a personal recommendation from one reader to another can be. I discovered an author I might not have otherwise heard of, and a press, Persephone Books in London, dedicated to reprinting books and authors that might otherwise molder in out-of-print-land. Thank you Persephone Books and thank you University Bookstore!"

Misha, UBS Customer, Librarian

The Giving Tree, by Shel Silverstein

"I choose this classic because the first 5 times I read it to my three year old daughter, I couldn’t get through it without crying. It very clearly illustrated to her that the written word can be profound enough to create strong reactions. It was the first time I unconsciously exposed her to the deep emotional power of art, and for that I am thankful."

Susie, UBS Events