A tree grows...

Here's a little story from the used book buyer's desk. Today a gentleman came in with an old copy of Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. The buyer took a look inside and, lo and behold, the book was an illustrated first edition. And, as you can see above, it was also signed.

So, the buyer looked it up. (Note that the copy linked is signed on a book plate. The book above is signed on the title page.)

Needless to say, we had to pass on it. The owner is bringing it home to consider his next move.

It was just exciting to see it, really.

New Year's Typo

If you live in Mill Creek, or Bellevue, or read The Stranger, you may have seen an ad for our little New Year's Day celebration. You also may have noticed that said ad is missing the apostrophe between the r and s in the word "year's."

That's my fault. Sorry. The first book I read in 2008 will be my recently neglected copy of The Elements of Style.

Dog of the Week

This Dachshund-filled December ends—as does 2007—with our friend Willie. When I took his photo, he decided he needed to do a little carpet wiggling.

Good Willie. Wiggle away.

Dog of the Week

Ah, the noble Mastiff. Beautiful dogs.

Above is a picture of Big Boy. (At least, I believe it's Big Boy and not Big Boi.)

Big Boy was nice enough to pose for us in the lobby. He was on his way out the door with his human. I nearly missed him.

I'd like to buy Big Boy a bowler hat.

O Tannenbaum

Here's another of our "behind the scenes" shots. Up in the Book department office, a coworker (Jody) has made this bookish holiday decoration.

Lessing

Until Daniel Handler mentioned it in this Salon list of favorite things, I had missed this wonderful little video of Doris Lessing returning from the market (with garlic and an artichoke, it seems) to find that she has won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Dog of the Week

Two for one! Here are a couple of brothers who came to visit our Bellevue store. In green is Sawyer. In blue is Winston. They have very nice sweaters.

One more little sausage-shaped dog in a red sweater, and they could have their own Dachshund version of The Brothers Karamazov.

Terry

As he has always been one of the most charming and good natured visitors to our author events program, our thoughts are with our friend Terry Pratchett, who was diagnosed with a "very rare form of early onset Alzheimer's." His note is from the 11th of December on the "Discworld News" page.

Here's the post script.

"PS I would just like to draw attention to everyone reading the above that this should be interpreted as 'I am not dead'. I will, of course, be dead at some future point, as will everybody else. For me, this maybe further off than you think — it's too soon to tell. I know it's a very human thing to say 'Is there anything I can do', but in this case I would only entertain offers from very high-end experts in brain chemistry."

Feel free to use the comments section to share some thoughts of your own. As with a Pratchett signing, Goths go first.