Taking Truman Capote on the Road

So, tonight, Thursday, December 11th, at 7PM, I take A Christmas Memory on the road for the first time, to our Bellevue branch.  The question is: will anyone follow?  Never done a reading in Bellevue.  Have no idea if there will be an audience or not.  Hope so.

It's not Capote's little masterpiece I doubt.  And it's not the good people of Bellevue.  The Seattle Times/Post Intelligencer newspaper listed the event in last Sunday's entertainment section -- but didn't say that this reading was at the Bellevue store!  So no one may know to go there.  So...

If you haven't heard me read this story before, and if you're at all curious, do please join me. If you don't, whoever you are, I plan to read aloud to any poor soul who happens by; booksellers, babies, random customers.  Imagine the reaction: some perfectly nice customer, looking to pick up a calendar for his grandmother (all our calendars are 20% off, by the way,) or pick up a copy of The Uniform Plumbing Code (we carry that in Bellevue too,) suddenly accosted by a strange little bearded figure, loudly imitating an elderly Southern lady, talking about "fruitcake weather!"  

I have no shame.  I'll do it, if need be.  I'll make some unsuspecting person cry, I can do it with this story, believe me, even if I have to hold said random person down, or follow them down into the parking garage (parking's free at the Bellevue store, by the way.)

Oh dear.

So spare the unsuspecting patrons of the UBS Bellevue, and come hear me read.

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.

Happy Birthday, John Milton

Philip Pullman—author of the wonderful YA series called His Dark Materials—reads from Milton's epic Paradise Lost. Pullman has a great voice. I regret that this is only a couple of minutes long.

A fine gift idea this year might be the Milton Complete Poetry and Essential Prose from Modern Library. It's a beautiful book. And here in the middle of a financial mess maybe the best thing to do is buy a ponderous door-stopping tome like this and hunker down for months of slow, methodical reading.

'Twas the Night Before Dickens

The world of Charles Dickens, in the popular imagination of our day, is little more than a Victorian Christmas card; plump ladies in funny caps, fat gentlemen in side-whiskers, all gathered 'round the Christmas table, chubby tykes gamboling about, and a toast in punch about to be drunk to the joys of the Season, perhaps to be followed by another to the dear little Queen. And then, what? Carols perhaps? How jolly. But look again at the card reproduced above. It is the very first commercially produced Christmas card, from 1843. There's more to it, isn't there?

Nowadays, there are whole collections for sale on EBay of just such happy scenes in miniature; whole happy villages reproduced in neat plastic, snow white plastic on tidy plastic streets full of clean little plastic Victorians and everybody, again, seems to be forever on the verge of singing. And this cheery vulgarity, for whom is it named? Why, Charles Dickens, of course.

It is entirely understandable that some might find this vision of the sanitized,

sentimentalized past more than a little noisome. Dickens would.

And there's worse. In Kent, England there's now an amusement park, brazenly called "Dickens' World," where costumed characters parade around the tidy reproduction of London, including, if you can believe it, the quaint slums, and drop off the little ones for daycare in "Fagin's Den."

Because what's missing in the miniatures and the amusement park -- other than taste -- and present, at least peripherally, in the actual Victorian scene on the card, are the poor. The model Victoriana is all about nostalgia, a phenomenon Charles Dickens found ridiculous and distasteful, if not infuriating, because nostalgia precludes even the possibility of progress. If they were in fact, such "good old times," then what was all that fuss about the Poor Laws, about child labor, about exploitation, and poverty, "ignorance and want?"

Dickens was no killjoy. Don't think that. As the title of Les Standiford's new book points out, Dickens is, after all, The Man Who Invented Christmas. But Christmas, as Dickens understood it, was as much or more about what we do to one another the rest of the year, as it is about what we do for one another, or at least intend to do, come December 25th.

So, enjoy the Festive Season, as those jolly folks in the middle of the first Christmas card seem to be doing. Dickens would heartily approve. He'd join in the fun, if he still could. (And maybe he does, depending on one's point of view.) But note what's just to either side of the good time. And remember, as Charles Dickens, in his "generous anger," wrote, and spoke, and read aloud and fought to remind us: that the spirit of Christmas need not come but once a year.

Our Own Lucy & Linus

And now, to see the evening out at the Booth, we have a duo of real book pros: Matthew & Stesha, UBS's own. True, they are adorable, but they are also really (really) bookish, so come see if they don't know just the right novel ("Not too violent or dirty, mind.") for dear ol' Aunt Lil, or the best new arty comix for your kid brother.

The Stranger at the Booth

Paul Constant, the Books Editor for The Stranger, is in the Booth and taking questions. Trust us, he's as amusing and erudite in person as he is in the pages of Seattle's favorite free paper.

And he's considerably younger and hipper -- than me at least --

so he may just be the one whose advice you need for that younger

relative who absolutely stumps you come gift giving season.

The Man from Norton

This hour at our Holiday Gift Advice Booth, we have Dan Christiaens -- the Man From W. W. Norton -- a publisher's Rep with a long and happy relationship with independent booksellers like us. (And he's joined at the Booth by his beautiful wife.)

This man reads (you hear me?) and not just 'cause it's his job.

Ask and learn, people, ask and learn.

Yo, yo, yo... Nancy Pearl is in Da House!

Seattle's own beloved Biblio-enthusiast, NPR commentator, television interviewer, author of the Book Lust books, and all around Best Librarian Ever -- Nancy Pearl! is in the store now, from noon 'til 2, answering your Holiday gift questions, making recommendations, and, as always bringing happiness to all of us at UBS and the general public.

Get your quarter out, get in line, and ask away!