HOLIDAY IN BOOKSTORES: Marking the Trees

(NOTE: Tell Kudu-Crawlin’ Red, tell Abyssinian Ned/Tell ol’ Pistol Pete, everybody gonna meet/Tonight we need no rest, we really gonna throw a mess/We gonna to break out all of the windows, we gonna kick down all the doors/We gonna pitch a wang dang doodle all night long/All night long/All night long/All night long)

In a Paris Review interview, William Faulkner said, “…the best job that was ever offered to me was to become a landlord in a brothel. In my opinion it’s the perfect milieu for an artist to work in. It gives him perfect economic freedom; he’s free of fear and hunger; he has a roof over his head and nothing whatever to do except keep a few simple accounts and to go once every month and pay off the local police. The place is quiet during the morning hours, which is the best time of the day to work. There's enough social life in the evening, if he wishes to participate, to keep him from being bored…”

Even better is the bookstore, where the exchange of ideas and old stories made new by new readers happens as soon as the doors open for business. The bookseller is there to greet you with marvels: history, how-to and where-to, fantasy, literature, cookery and cooking, poems of thunder and light, foreign languages, birding, travel, great screaming novels of these here states, art, and fuzzy kittens doing funny things. Inside a bookstore are light and life, and, contrary to Faulkner’s chosen venue, less chance of getting an STD. This is important.

BLACK FRIDAY BLUES

Many Americans slump to the sales offered by the big stores on the day after or the day of Thanksgiving, in search of savings for the next round of overindulgence in December. Some regard this orgy of consumerism as a sign of the end of days. They may be right. What is bought today is landfill tomorrow, and most landfill sites are already full. Rarely does a book poke out of the pile of broken and pointless merchandise. A book lasts longer than the sweet sentiment behind its giving, and is passed down and around friends and family.

TAKE YOUR WALLET TO SMALL BUSINESS SATURDAY

An alternative to Black Friday is Small Business Saturday, coming to you on November 30, 2013. Smart, good-looking, and properly groomed writers will stalk the aisles of your favorite independent bookstore to give bookish advice, giftwrap your purchases, and generally help the booksellers who help them. Poet, novelist, and short story writer Sherman Alexie (appearing at Queen Anne Book Company, Secret Garden Books, and Elliot Bay Book Company among others in Seattle, Washington) came up with this idea, and bookstores and writers have taken it from one side of the country to the other. Dave Barry will be at Books & Books in Coral Gables, Florida; Amy Brill and Jon Scieszka at Community Bookstore in Brooklyn, New York; Rick Bass at Fact & Fiction in Missoula, Montana; Ginny Rorby at Gallery Bookshop in Mendocino, California; and a whole bunch of others. Check out the website at www.indiebound.org/indies-first-stores, and let your conscience do the buying.

ALTERNATIVE TO ANOTHER DULL DAY

Faulkner grabbed the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949, and this is why he could say what he did in the interview with Jean Stein. Not so with The Dog Walked Down the Street: An Outspoken Guide for Writers Who Want to Publish (Cypress House, $13.95). This fine book is polite, courteous, self-effacing, and can be read in front of decent people. When out on Small Business Saturday, make sure to purchase at least seven copies from your local independent bookstore. Each will come in handy as gifts to the readers and writers on your list that have been good all year long, except for the weekend in April no one talks about. Log on to www.indiebound.com to find the store near you. Now wash your hands.

NEXT: Paw Prints on the Pillow

BOOKS MAKE A HOME MORE CROWDED: Another Collar


(NOTE: Charles Darwin will celebrate the 150th anniversary of his THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES in November. This is a worthwhile book to have and read but there is no reason to rush out and buy a copy on account of Mr. Darwin is no longer alive to enjoy his piece of the action. Many dead writers have the same problem. While they may not have taken their royalties with them, having the checks forwarded would be a nice gesture. This includes film rights.)


MAKING A HOME LIBRARY

Every home needs a library, no matter if you live in a prefab McMansion, cramped studio apartment, or dull condominium. All your stuff is a reflection of who you are: the photographs and art prints on the walls serve as reminders of where you’ve been and with whom, comfortable furniture says you like sitting around, and home entertainment systems tell how much you care about what you listen to and watch. These are dandy, but a home is not truly a home until there are shelves loaded with books.

Your library should consist of what you like. There is no “must have” list to consult. Mysteries? Line them up. The same goes for cooking and cookery, biography, history, science, novels, poetry, or reference books. Recycle the ones you will never read or have read and dislike. A home library does not have to be all-inclusive or expansive, only filled with your interests. Paperbacks can sit next to hard covers without causing any serious zoning problems. Any guest that ridicules your selection should be politely shown the door. You don’t want those people around anyway.



SHELVING MATTERS

In a world better than the abysmal wallow we currently plod through, part of high school curriculum would include building bookshelves. Students learn how to choose woods, saw, sand, countersink screws, and use a spirit level. Since this is unlikely to happen, most people purchase ready-made shelves. Particleboard is a mistake (the crap bows under any weight), so is metal, and dark woods dampen an otherwise bright room. How tall the shelves need to be depends on what you put on them. For those whose taste runs to art books, the shelves should be at least 14 inches apart and likely more. Mass-market paperbacks are 7 inches tall, and hardcover fiction and nonfiction run about 9 inches. Add another inch so there will be no cramping. The measuring tape is your friend.

Wherever the shelves are placed, make sure no direct sunlight hits them. Red book jackets will be bleached to pink in no time under the effects of full spectrum light, and green and yellow and teal also get drained of their original brightness. Sun is brutal on books of all colors. You want light? Go buy a lamp.

ORGANIZE FOR THE HECK OF IT

Save the Dewey decimal system for your next visit to the public library. This is yours and organization is all about what works for you. Should you line the books alphabetically by title or author? What works is more important than what someone else might think. For those with a heightened visual sense, try separating by color. Rimbaud scribbled out: “I invented the color of vowels!—A black, E white, I red, O blue, U green…” Use this for a start while dullards have to make do with whole words.



Those with a range of interests will want to make divisions by genre: cookery here, science fiction there, and racier stuff at the top so the kids won’t get into it until they grow tall enough or learn how to use a chair. Every book is valid so what goes first never matters, only that you can find it when you want. If you live with other people ask their opinions so you can ignore them.

HOW TO BUY BOOKS

Come on, think for a moment. The best place to buy books is at an independent bookstore. They need the help and so do the impecunious writers whose work sits in their shops. Big chain stores will need the help about two days after Earth is sucked into a giant black hole and shot across the galaxy to a new solar system. Since this is not going to happen anytime soon, check the Yellow Pages or log on to IndieBound (www.indiebound.org) for the nearest and friendliest bookstore in your neighborhood. Buy several copies of THE DOG WALKED DOWN THE STREET: AN OUTSPOKEN GUIDE FOR WRITERS WHO WANT TO PUBLISH (Cypress House, $13.95). Special orders will be cheerfully filled.


NEXT: Distemper of Our Times