Reading Outside the Comfort Zone

I almost exclusively read books that are in my department. If only because of the piles and piles of new things that come in every season, and the zillions of books that came before them, I feel like I have to read that way to keep up with the section. I do feel a responsibility to be well-versed in the area in which customers and coworkers rely on my expertise. And because reading for work is pretty much the same as reading for pleasure, and I long ago stopped reading things just to impress other people (oh the liberation that brought!), I'm perfectly happy to be well-read in just one area.

But because I work in the Kids Department, that means I pretty much don't read what we affectionately refer to as “Grown-Up Books.” I'm okay with it; as I said I even consider myself fairly well-read. Until I have an embarrassing interaction: I tell someone I work in a bookstore, and they ask what I think of the hip new book that everyone and their mother is reading. I have never, ever read that book. I haven't read Steig Larsson's Dragon Tattoo trilogy, or The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, or Let the Great World Spin. I mean, that's okay, right? I've read most of the hip new books that every twelve-year-old is reading, and most of the big children's book award-winners of the last five years. I do read a lot, and within the realm of children's books I read across genre- biography, history, science , fantasy, romance, mystery, literary fiction, coming of age. And as I've written here before, you can learn an awful lot from children's books. But sometimes, that doesn't feel like enough.

Due to Seija's hearty recommendation of William Styron and especially Sophie's Choice, I decided to break free of the under-18 crowd and read a big kid book for once. Seija politely reminded me that if you read a lot of young adult fiction, you might forget how much effort you as a reader are expected to expend to get into the characters and situations in a novel like this. I laughed and said I would be just fine, thank you very much. But it was quite a different experience, and she was right in a big way. Not to say that young adult novels do not require emotional heavy lifting; I would even say some can be more taxing. But after a week of diving into SC, I felt like I had extra roommates. I was taking Sophie, Nathan, and Stingo's opinions of things into account in my daily life, as if they were hanging around and might be offering up a comment on my lunch menu or musical choices any minute. Finishing it took me probably two weeks, whereas I can plow through an average middle grade novel in a lunch break plus a good evening on the couch.

The whole thing got me thinking about what I like and don't about the two respective kinds of fiction: books specifically aimed at young folks, and books aimed at the general reading public. I've read books for kids on a wide variety of intense topics- being an immigrant kid while surviving abuse at home, surviving a self-inflicted gunshot wound and the resulting recovery process, day-to-day life in a concentration camp, a community of runaway slaves in Canada, stories of losing important people in a myriad of ways. The language in kids and young adult fiction, both descriptively and emotionally, is often quite a bit more direct. There's less worming around trying to figure out how to feel, trying to weigh every option all the time, less constant analysis. It's a story about something, always moving forward. Sometimes when I read adult novels I actually find myself annoyed by their Hamlet-y indecisiveness. Just decide whether to be or not be, and quit whining already. Okay, so you had an affair/someone died/she doesn't love you back. Deal with it! Sometimes my angsty teenagers seem more emotionally mature than older protagonists.

But this is all just to say that it can be an interesting exercise to read outside your comfort zone. I highly recommend it. Whether it expands your horizons or just reinforces why you love what you love, it can't be a waste to push it every once in awhile.

-Anna, Kids Books

We Couldn't Have Said It Better

We don't usually talk about Amazon to our customers, and that won't change. But every now and then, when a thoughtful, well written article catches our eye, we will reprint it here.


In a column for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Nancy Ettenheim wrote:

"I remember when Amazon.com first burst onto the book scene. I am a book junkie, and there is no fix like a huge bookstore for someone like me. Amazon is the mother of them all. Meanwhile, back in Milwaukee, it very soon became apparent that every dollar I spent at Amazon was a dollar that Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops would never get. After one or two purchases at Amazon, I quit, went cold turkey. But we all know the results of everyone's collective love affair with Amazon: Schwartz is now out of business, one of the truly great losses to our community.

"It is clear that online buying does not just pose a hypothetical threat to our local businesses--the casualties are already out there. We owe it to ourselves, our community and our local business owners who bust their butts to stay in business to carefully consider the ramifications of our online buying. If each of us changes his or her purchasing habits even part of the time, we will have assisted in the reinvestment in our own community."

From "Dissecting Amazon" in Shelf Awareness

Pam, Shelf Life

A Poetry Break

So, you heard that W.S. Merwin was named the U.S. poet laureate, right? I'm pretty excited about this because it is so very well deserved. Every time I pick up his Pulitzer Prize winner, The Shadow of Sirius, while I'm hanging around the poetry section I read a different poem and with every poem, I am floored. I am not a poetry person. I love the idea of it, I love pretending I know who is who in poetry and what they are all about. But poetry is hard for me. It takes a lot of concentration and focus. It requires me to think real hard, outside of the box, and imagine.

All of this is to say that I connect with Merwin's poems and that surprises me and makes me happy. I think that you might be able to, as well.

Can we just sit and read one together?
**
**
Note

Remember how the naked soul
comes to language and at once knows
loss and distance and believing

then for a time it will not
run with its old freedom
like a light innocent of measure
but will hearken to how
one story becomes another
and will try to tell where
they have emerged from
and where they are heading
as though they were its own legend
running before the words and beyond them
naked and never looking back

through the noise of questions

--W.S. Merwin, Shadow of Sirius
**
**

Any interpretations of this poem are welcome in the comments.

--Anna, Events

UBS Bellevue remodel news

“And visqueen shall rain from the sky”, or so it seems at the Bellevue branch of the University Book Store. Construction has begun on the illuminating remodel at our eastside store, bringing two skylight platforms, and a redesigned façade with high placed windows, for a flow of natural light. So with the heavy white protective barrier of visqueen in place in the front of the store, and draped like a Christo installation in two places in the middle of the store, we try to maintain a “business as usual” flair of bookselling. So far, we are succeeding.

With construction brings noise and cacophony, and people in orange vests with hard hats, and deep tans from the solar assault of working on top of the bookstore. Now that summer has finally arrived, “hydrate” has become their mantra. The sales staff is ready to assist in the navigation of the floor as it continues to morph to accommodate the construction traffic.

Large openings in the ceiling bring about the dares of playing chicken with the weather gods. This time, the gods were laughing. A large tarp covering the newly cut openings blew off in a downpour late one night, thus dousing the middle portion of the sales floor with water. This catastrophe was not evident until the morning crews arrived and discovered some cases of books and clothing racks were quite moist, and that the carpet was now ready to house sea life. Extra members of the construction crew were brought in to assist with the cleanup, while bookstore staff began to pull the soaked and the dampened off the floor. Everyone pitched in with a “we can do it” attitude and we had the store opened with only an hour of delay. Just when we thought no one would want to patronize the store under such disheveled conditions, our customers proved us wrong and came out to shop. The resulting damage was minimal to the merchandise, and the crew was able to resume construction with only one day of delay.

As I write this, one entire book information counter is now draped with plastic, as crews work above to redirect a drain pipe. And the familiar beepings of loaders and hydraulic lifts greet the morning store staff. There is excitement in the air as the remodel progresses, and staff and customers alike are sharing in the joy that once the visqueen is folded, and the scaffolding has been put away, that it was all worth it.

--David, Bellevue branch

Is it 2011 yet?...a conversation with Calendar girl.

Hello!

You may have been glued to your seats as each and every 2010 calendar found a home in the last episode of 'Days of our Calendars.' (Or not.) And although not quite the cliff-hanger, we were left with a number of folks who wanted to know if we had held onto any stragglers for purchase throughout the year. Sadly, we had not.

But this year marks a new beginning for the bookstore calendar collection as Kathy---our very own beloved calendar diva---has decided to keep some of the local offerings around for stock throughout much of the 2011 season. A marvelous idea.

You will be pleased to note that many of your favorites will be coming our way again this year: the surprise hit of 2010, 'Goats in Trees'; the ever popular Inuit art collection; and many, many more.

Consider purchasing the new-to-stock calendar featuring Abraham Lincoln, or perhaps revisit your childrens' fictional pal the 'Whimpy Kid,' and don't forget about all those hilarious 'Cake Wrecks!' Further it is no surprise that Zombies have also found their way into stock in the title 'Fold your own Zombie' ... and as such we are currently mopping up the copious amounts of red dye number 2 that was used ... so much fake blood is needed for the shocking effects to shine.

One title has me curious, and that is the 'How to Live in Flip Flops' offering. I imagine that we will find a good part of the university district populace wants to know the answer to that question. lol.

So, don't be surprised that many folks will be putting in their orders early this year to secure their calendar of choice. Please know that Kathy, Jan (aka calendar girl), and the entire bookstore family are poised and ready to assist you with your order(s).

Be seeing you soon!
Calendar Girl

Meet the Bloggers

We are back again with our Meet the Bloggers series. Today I want to introduce you to Griffin Taylor.

Griffin is a jack of all trades in the bookstore world. He's worked at our Bellevue branch, in our events department and he currently is the master of shelving and information for most of our general non-fiction books. A proud English major, avid video gamer and enthusiast for Japanese culture, Griffin is super smart and funny. I'd recommend jumping at a chance to pick his brain.

What are 3 books that will always be on your bookshelf and why?

The Great Gatsby, because I was an English major, Breakfast of Champions, because it was my first taste of Vonnegut, and A Jello Horse, because it's an important reminder to chase after that dream.

What book blogs or websites do you frequently check in on?

Since I'm kind of a video game nerd, I'm frequently perusing IGN and Kotaku, sometimes Destructoid to keep up to date. In terms of more literary stuff, I used to check HTMLGiant rather obsessively (like, every 20 minutes, maybe), as well as the Stranger's book column.

Every reader has their favorite spot, where do you read and what do you need to have around you when you read?

You know, I'm not much of a ritualized reader. This is something that surprises me about myself, but it's true. Being a commuter of the bus riding variety, I find that I get a lot of my reading done in transit on one of those beasts. My personal favorite is the 540 to the U-District. Especially in the morning. It's usually pretty quiet, and quite empty if you ride at the right time.

If you could play one video game with one literary fiction author, who would it be and what game?

This is a difficult question for me, and I think you knew that it would be when you came up with it. I'm kind of split, and so I'll just share both answers. Tom Bissell is an awesome author, though I am only familiar with his personal essays about video games. Needless to say, as a fellow gamer, he's a prime candidate. As far as games go, I'm thinking something with implications and underlying themes that I wouldn't necessarily be aware of. I think I'd want to hear his take on Ico. So, with that said, the other scenario would involve Joshua Ferris. I know, I know, the guy's just blowin' up now that he's on the Top 20 Under 40 list The New Yorker put out, but he's one of my favorite literary figures. Why? The guy is an amazing speaker in addition to an amazing writer. The speaking part really blew me away at the author event we had with him last year. I'd want to play Red Dead Redemption with him. I wonder what he'd have to say about life and morality in the old west. Insightful and hilarious, this guy can do it all. Truly the sun and the moon existing as one!

What is your favorite section to shelve? 

My favorite section for shelving is history. Any kind of history. I think part of it is because I like all of the numbers (639, 678, 636.1), but it's also just a particularly interesting area in terms of what you can glean from covers. Such as the book Young Stalin. What did I learn from the cover? Young Stalin rocked the bohemian look, and seemed like kind of a pretty boy. I didn't see that comin'. 

You can see all of Griffin's posts here.

!Viva Poetry!

Five or six months ago a UW committee dreamed up the idea of an anthology of poems for their annual Common Book for incoming freshman—and they started with this poem: Philip Levine's What Work is.

"You know what work is—if you're old
enough to read this, you know what
work is, although you may not do it."

It's the perfect 'gateway poem' for non-poetry-readers, not to mention the anxious future job-seekers of America, which today's college students have become. The unriddling process of reading the poem allows us to experience the extra punch of the last line (I won't tell you, but, yes, it has to do with work).

This isn't the only way to write a good poem, as the other selections do their utmost to show. There's the dreamy romance and brutality of Mahmoud Darwish's Rita & the Gun, which begins and ends with:

"Between Rita & my eyes is a gun."

In this poem you can't exit with some life-changing insight--you're trapped in a fluid, circular universe saturated with an almost unworldly emotion. Darwish is a favorite of mine, a Palestinian who bore witness to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict until his death in 2008. He vacillates between rabble-rousing political poems in his earlier years to the wistful soul-searching of the last decade.

Lynn Emanuel's The Politics of Narrative : Why I am a Poet is another provocative alternative, wavering between prose poem and manifesto.

"And I write for people, like myself, who are just tired of the trickle-down theory where somebody spends pages and pages on some fat book where everything including the draperies, which happened to be burnt orange, are described, and further, are some metaphor for something. And this whole boggy waste trickles down to the reader in the form of a little burp of feeling. God, I hate prose. I think the average reader likes ideas."

Whoa. What I like about this grotesque, funny diatribe is it reminds us to ask what we actually want out of a story, movie, poem, book: the conventional sameness with beginning, middle, and end or a visceral, instantaneous thrill or the pure, bald ideas themselves? It also manages to put some pressure on those who dismiss poetry over and over again before they read it, while giving a nod to those who do. Emanuel describes poetry readers this way:

"They pull their own weight."

In fact the whole collection is a solid defense of the genre. The perfect summation comes from UW Professor/Poet Richard Kenney, quoted in the introduction:

"People like poetry like people like music: nobody doesn't. If some think they don't, they just haven't listened to the right thing."

Touche. Yes, I'm happy all the freshman will be reading this, and their families and some other curious folk. It's not just about poetry, but about refusing to be cowed by what is challenging, unusual and smart.

- Tera

Meet the Bloggers

Hey blog readers! Today is Day 2 of our Meet the Bloggers series and we have the pleasure of hanging out with Tera Kelley...

Tera is our Esspresso Book Machine aficionado. She tinkers with tools, aligns pages, warms the glue pot, waits, and then starts all over again. Also, if you have any poetry questions, go to Tera.

What are 3 books that will always be on your bookshelf and why? 
Walden by Henry David Thoreau : a decade-long love affair with the New England gnome-man.

Arcades Project by Walter Benjamin : I'll never finish it.

Middlemarch by George Eliot : I have a soft spot for all things Eliot, especially Dorothea stumbling through the antiquities of Rome.

What are some creative ways the EBM could be used to self-publish?         I just figured out we can bind pre-printed pages—which means if you bring in color copies you can have a full color book!

What out of print book have you been really excited about the ability to print? 
I just found a Bicycling for Ladies book from 1896 with chapters on “Women and Tools” and “The Art of Wheeling.” The writer is truly sympathetic to the nervous ladies about to try out “an unaccustomed exercise.”

If you were stranded on a desert island with one book of poems, which would it be? 
Elizabeth Bishop's Complete Poems.

You can see all of Tera's posts here.