If you fail to plan...

If I have learned one thing as the calendar buyer here at the store, it's that people get very attached to their calendars. That goes double for their planners. Here at the Ave store, we have over 150 different planner/desk/engagement/

pocket calendar titles in New & Used books alone, not to mention the many other styles carried in our Supplies department downstairs. So, if you're looking for a change in 2009, take a look at these:


2009 Charley Harper Diary Calendar
by teNeues

Magneto closure features an innovative magnetic clasp to fasten tightly over the hardcover diary/calendar. Includes 8 inside Charley Harper images, weekly grid format with large notes, ribbon bookmark, and inside pocket for business cards, receipts, and notes. 4" x 5.75".
$10.99

The Black and White Diary 2009
by Redstone Press

Redstone Diary for 2009 brings you: 54 vital images of black and white in art and life; a special 24 page year-planner illustrated with beautiful woodcuts by the great Japanese artist Shiko Munakata; two folded pockets and an address book section. 6.5" x 9.75". $27.00

Linnea Monthly Datebook 2009
by Madison Park Greetings

This hardcover monthly desk calendar from Seattle's own Madison Park Greetings features the charming illustrations of Seattle artist Linnea Riley. 9" x 9". $16.00

Murakami Diary 2009
by Vintage Books

A must-have for fans of the work of Haruki Murakami, this handsome little planner contains excerpts and quotes from the author's works, along with photographs and crisp design. 4.25" x 6". $16.95

January to January Calendar Organizer 2009
by Mixed Role Productions

From the folks that brought you the utilitarian but wildly popular August to August Calendar, the inaugural year of the new January to January version comes in brightly-colored shades dubbed Ebony, Ruby, Emerald and Sapphire. 5.5" x 8.5". $15.95

Walton Ford Deluxe Diary 2009
by Taschen

If you love monkeys (or macaws, or lions, or snakes), this is the planner for you! Walton Ford's beautiful and strange nature paintings will make you look forward to Mondays with a new excitement. Trademark Taschen quality and detail give this planner a luxurious look and feel. 7" x 8.75". $29.99

Slingshot Organizer 2009
by Slingshot Collective

Over the past 15 years the Slingshot organizers have accumulated legions of contented users. Available in a pocket and a spiral-bound desk size, both of which come in a rainbow of colors, the Slingshot is the product of an all-volunteer collective in Berkeley, and is chock full of useful and unexpected information for every day of the year. Example: the entry for May 11 informs us that on that date in 2003, employees of Seattle's own Lusty Lady took over the theater's operations. $6.00 pocket, $12.00 desk

Paperblanks Planners 2009
by Paperblanks

The nice folks at our Mill Creek, Tacoma and Bellevue stores have been carrying the Paperblanks planners for years, but we have them at the Ave store for the first time this year. From the folks that make all those nice blank journals, the 2009 planners come in a variety of styles, inside and out. Choose from magnetic closure, elastic closure, Mini, Slim, Pocket, Large and Extra Large, embossed, foiled, jeweled...the list goes on!

and last but not least...back in July in this space I gently warned you about

Moleskine Planners
by Moleskine

We still have a couple of the 18-month styles available, which I have seen listed online for some ridiculously high prices. If you use the 18-month Moleskine, remember that your current one will expire in December. Last year we were completely sold out of the 18-month ones by then. We also have 18 different styles of the 2009 Moleskine planners, including some I though we were not getting but which miraculously showed up last week. These will undoubtedly sell out as well. So if you want to become an online Moleskine speculator, by all means, come buy 15 or 20 today. They're one of the best investments out there!

John Leonard

Sad news: literay critic John Leonard has passed away.

I read his Harper's column every month even when I didn't have any interest in the book he was reviewing because his writing was always lively and smart. For a taste of it, check out this review he wrote of Hatchet Jobs by Dale Peck, a collection of Peck's notoriously over-the-top negative reviews of fellow writers. At first, it seems to come off as a measured, hesitant, and perhaps even gentle rebuke of the young firebrand by the older, wiser writer: "You will notice that I mosey. Some of us, when we are about to be unpleasant, are bothered by the feeling that it's almost as hard to write a bad book as a good one and lots easier to write a slash-and-burn review." (Note his use of the word "unpleasant.") But he thoroughly—and I think quite fairly—takes Peck to task and administers a pretty spectacular smackdown.

I'll miss having the opportunity to read his work.

Ed Champion has put together a nice set of links in a post on his blog.

Election Day

From the New York Times, poems on Election Day.

Contributions from: John Ashbery, August Kleinzahler, Joshua Mehigan, Mary Jo Bang, and J.D. McClatchy.

They are a little grave in tone, but perhaps that is to be expected. The always cantankerous Kleinzahler (he who quite entertainingly dismissed Garrison Keillor's Good Poems here) is a hoot, though, and includes the line: "Us whom we've been waiting for..." in his piece.

Eat, Drink, and Be Merry, (Dear Foodies,) Eat, Drink and Be Merry

Fellow Food enthusiasts: 'tis the Season! To celebrate the on-rush of Holiday Cheer, expanding capacity, dusting off muffin-tins, measuring brandy, candying ginger, basting birds, stirring fudge, and breaking bread together, we are featuring a loaded table of food writing, recipes, cooks' memoirs and books delectable, in every price range from fabulous and new to affordable remainders and collectible used books.

The Bon Appetit Fast Easy Fresh Cookbook, from Bon Appetit Magazine, written by Barbara Fairchild is a big, beauty of a book, just in. Greg and Lucy Malouf have produced a stunning new title that combines travel and eating -- and when is that not the ideal combination? --Turquoise: A Chef's Travels in Turkey. Local Frogchart Press has a very funny new book by Barry Foy, The Devil's Food Dictionary: A Pioneering Culinary Reference Work Consisting Entirely of Lies (and we have a limited number of signed copies of this still.)

Meat: A Love Story, My Year in Search of the Perfect Meal, by Susan Bourette is a witty treat. Deep Dark Chocolate: Decadent Recipes for the Serious Chocolate Lover, by Sarah Perry and Jane Zwinger, with mouth-watering photographs from France Ruffenach.

And the book that inspired us, of course, (as if an excuse was needed,) is Best Food Writing 2008, edited by Holly Hughes. This annual treasure features essays from Mark Bittman, Michael Pollon, Calvin Trillin, Alice Waters, and more and more...

And, please, don't forget, these books are just the tip of of the meringue. To check out all our fabulous food books, step across the lobby to our Cookbook Section. It's right next to The Book Store Cafe, and yes, we did that on purpose.

Bon Appetit, indeed.

Brother, can you spare... ten bucks?

A new display went up in New & Used Books this weekend: gifts for ten bucks or less. We've got leather-bound books, like The Complete Novels of Jane Austen, book-lights from I-Lites, beautiful notebooks books from paperblanks, the Yoga to Go Travel Deck, a miniature-cube version of The Earth, wonderfully colorful pocket calenders, in tough plastic covers, from teNeuses, bookplates, an "Authors Card Game, and on and on and on...

The Little Red Riders Book is "The odd, ordinary and outrageous backstage demands of rock 'n' roll's most famous artists..." Hilarious. The New York Times The Joy of Crosswords -- speaks for itself. The Pocket Naturalist Guides from Waterford Press have a laminated format, perfect for a back pocket on a hike and we have, for example, Bugs & Slugs: An Introduction to Familiar North American Invertebrates. 97 ways to make a dog smile, by Jenny Langbehn is an established favorite with the staff here, and, at $7.95, exactly right for a Christmas stocking or for mailing to a dog or dog-owner you love.

So, if your wallet is hurting, and who's isn't these days? Consider fun affordability, thanks to your fellow economic sufferers here at University Book Store.

"Real America" and the World Mourn the Genuine Article

If you want to know what "real America" is, read Studs Terkel.

Studs

Sad news for anyone who loved Chicago's irascible (and I mean that in the nicest way possible) old man of letters: Studs Terkel has passed away at 96. Who the heck won't miss him?

Goodbye, Studs. It's been (and will continue to be) an honor to shelve your books.

Lobbing More Loebs at the Public

Greek & Latin readers! Exspectata! We've got another load of Loeb Classical Library books in; all used, all clean and in excellent shape, some with and some without dustjackets.

This does not happen that often. When it does, these books go pretty quickly. So stop by soon.

Among the authors included this time:

Demosthenes, Aristophanes, Menander, Isocrates, Apollonius Rhodius, Sophocles, Lysias, Aristotle, and "Minor Attic Orators."

These used books are priced at half or less of the price of new copies.

Come, my classicists, come.