Indie bookstores rock!

Shrinking Violet Promotions is nearing the end of their series promoting great independent bookstores. Definitely check it out! There are some really cool indies – maybe you’ll find one to visit next time you’re away somewhere on vacation, because we all know books and holidays go together like rama lama lama ka dinga da dinga dong. (Wow, my brain is weird.)

Anyway… the other day I discovered that SVP had profiled a store I know and love: Greenwoods’ Bookshoppe, in Edmonton. If you’re heading to Edmonton this summer, don’t just take in the world-famous mall (which personally I’d avoid, given that I hate both shopping and crowds, but you know… to each her own), head to Edmonton’s Old Strathcona area and spend some time in Greenwoods’.

[ETA: Oh man, I totally have that song stuck in my head now.]

The Cuffies

For the Cuffies (“Off the Cuff” awards), children’s booksellers choose their favourite – and not so favourite – books of the year. Categories include fave novel of the year, most innovative book, funniest book, book you couldn’t shut up about, book you wish everyone would shut up about, and a bunch more. Check out the 2008 winners!

Indie Love

Do you love indie bookstores? I absolutely do! And so do Mary and Robin over at the Shrinking Violet blog, which is why they’re celebrating National Independent Booksellers Month by highlighting a different indie bookstore every day this month. So check it out! Maybe you’ll discover a treasure near you, or one that you’ll want to check out when you’re traveling this summer. Yay for indies!

Long live indie bookstores!

You probably know I’m thrilled that my town has a gorgeous new indie bookstore, Coho Books. I came across some great ideas on supporting local bookstores on Justina Chen Headley’s blog and thought I’d share…. Maybe one or two of them are things you can do for your own fave bookstore!

Justina’s Fab Five Ways to Support Your Local Bookstore:

1. Attend an in-store author event. Actually, don’t just attend one event. Attend a bunch of them. The sad thing is that so many author events aren’t attended by many people. Oh gosh, at readergirlz, Ann Brashares (she of Sisterhood book, movie, and fame) told us about a recent signing where NO ONE showed up. SAD for the author, but GOOD for you. This just means that you might have a super intimate conversation with one of your favorite authors of all time.
2. Bring your friends. Make a pact to bring a group of friends with you to these author events: the more, the merrier. It could be a standing date with all your favorite readergirlz buddies: author comes to town; you all head out to hang out with the writer.
3. Buy first edition books…from your local indie bookseller. Soooo…about 7 years ago, my hubby trotted home with an auction catalog from Sotheby’s where they were selling off a book from the very first UK printing of Harry Potter 1. He said, “We should go for it!” I said, “What? That’s the dumbest investment idea I’ve ever heard of. We should invest in…HomeGrocer.com.” (I know, I know.) Well…guess what that first edition copy is worth now. And it’s not just Jo’s books that become valuable. But forget collectability…go to 4!
4. Give books as gifts. (And books autographed to your BFF are even better…) Over at readergirlz, we created our gift giving guide for the holidays: Best Books for Your BFF. Those bookmarks, filled with fun and fabulous book lists from our beloved postergirlz advisory committee (the smartest and kindest and most expert children’s lit bloggers on the planet), are actually perfect year-round. Books are a gift from the heart. Your heart.
5. Negotiate a Package Deal with Your Bookseller. I thought this was such a good idea from University Bookstore here in Seattle. They’re offering a bundle of autographed books from visiting authors for a set (read: discounted) price. Why not pitch this idea to your local bookseller? Eoin Colfer, Jon Scieska (new Children’s Lit ambassador for the U.S.), Libba Bray, Shannon Hale and so many other fantastic authors are TOURING the country right now. As in: RIGHT NOW. If they’re heading your way, talk to your bookseller. That way, even if you can’t attend the booksigning, you can still get a book personalized for yourself and / or your BFF.

Long live (and love) our independent booksellers. Feel free to REPOST these ideas everywhere.

A bibliophile rejoices

We have a bookstore! A brand spanking new bookstore in my little town (why is something new spanking?), and I am one happy girl. Not that I need more books. That’s never stopped me before, though, and now I can actually browse the shelves and see all the wonderful covers and smell the new paper and feel the pages between my fingers and…. Shopping at Amazon.ca just doesn’t compare. I get my books, sure, but I don’t get the multi-sensory experience of actually shopping for them! And now I can. Yay!

I pored over the YA section then had a nice chat with the owner. Maybe next time I’ll suggest a few potential additions to her YA collection (which was quite impressive for the small store, but still missing a few key authors, IMHO — like Sarah Dessen, one of my fave YA authors, whose books consistently offer realistic feels-like-you-know-them characters, in addition to their compelling storylines). I selected a couple books (how could I go in there all happy to discover the store and not support it?!) and headed home.

I hope our little store makes it. It should — the only competition is the grocery store’s poorly arranged aisle of books. There’s not a chance of a big box store coming in here to defeat it (a la You’ve Got Mail) so as long as people stay away from Amazon and support their new indie, it should be a success.

And now, for some strange reason, I’ve got the urge to watch something with Tom Hanks in it. Ah, but I see my new book sitting on the coffee table, and it’s calling me. Sorry, Tom, you’ll have to wait.

New old books (or old new books?)

Went into the used bookstore today because, you know, it was there. Came out with five paperbacks, which is not bad at all. I think I exercised a fair bit of self-control, actually. Here’s what I found today:

1. Whitney Otto’s How To Make An American Quilt
2. Jodi Picoult’s The Pact
3. Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert, cuz I’ve been meaning to read this for a long time
4. Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, which ::gasp:: I’ve never read (oh, the shame)
5. Sarah Dessen’s Keeping the Moon, which I’ve read but want to read again one day

Plus I bought Miriam Toews’ The Summer of my Amazing Luck in the grocery store yesterday (our only option for new books here in town). So I’m a happy girl.

Yes, I bought more…

Is there a support group for people who can’t stop buying books? I know I’m not alone in this addiction. It is so getting out of control. Help. Somebody. Save me. I’m binging without purging (get rid of some books? are you crazy?!), and now I’ve become a closet book-buyer. No, I don’t take my laptop into the closet so I can shop online in private (hmmm…), but I am starting to hide my purchases, pretend I haven’t bought any more (“that old thing? had it for ages”), and generally do anything I have to do to get away with bringing more books into the house. It’s bad, I know. So, a 12-step program, you think?

There’s no such thing as too many books

I had just finished reading the jacket copy on each of the books in this week’s pile from the library. I was eager to dive into the first one, but knowing me, that would mean I wouldn’t emerge back into the real world for several hours. So I thought I should post here first, or it wouldn’t get done at all today. I got comfortable on the living room chair, opened a diet Coke, and turned on my laptop. Then my husband’s voice came up the stairs from the open front door: “You bought more books?” Yup, the mail carrier had brought my latest Amazon order. Yay! Of course, posting on my blog came a distant second to tearing into the corrugated packaging and admiring my purchases. (No offence, dear reader.) But now, here I am at my computer again.

One of my new books is the 2007 Novel & Short Story Writer’s Market. That one – and a highlighter pen – will accompany me to my son’s hockey practise tonight. The other two new books are both YA novels that I’ve read before (from the library), but that both need to be re-read with a pen in hand, studying them and dissecting them, because they were excellent. So today’s Amazon delivery is all about “work” (which is so not like work at all).

Now it’s back to my library books: three more YA’s and a non-fiction called Chasing Daylight: How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life, by Eugene O’Kelly. I’m going to read the NF first; it looks completely fascinating.

Here’s the problem: I’m looking out my living room window at the glorious day and thinking how can I sit inside and read on a day like this? So I’m going to practise some delayed gratification and go for a walk first, all the way down to that little second-hand bookstore I’ve been meaning to check out. Don’t tell my hubby.

New is better

I need a bookstore. I need to see and touch a whole bunch of books, but I’ve got no bookstore in which to do that. No quaint indie, no giant box store. Nada. It’s one of the very few things I miss about living in a big city. I’ve been surviving with Amazon.ca and my local library, which has been mostly satisfying as far as my reading experience goes, but still, there’s nothing quite like spending an hour or two lost in stacks of brand new books.

I’m feeling this way because I have, sitting beside me on the couch, a YA novel that I’ve been looking forward to reading and that finally made it to my local branch in response to my online library request. The problem is that the book has been a popular one — read, and read again — and it is a little, shall we say, gross. It smells dusty (actually makes my allergies flare up while I’m reading), and the pages are a bit grimy.

I want a new book. Demanding, aren’t I? But I can’t help it. Fresh, clean pages that smell of nothing but new ink; a smooth cover; an uncreased spine; no dog-eared corners, no pencil marks, no crumbs from a previous reader’s late-night snack. A new, perfect book. I am totally in favour of supporting libraries because they are invaluable in promoting a love of reading in all ages. Libraries, and used-book stores as well, make books available, and that’s vital. Even so, I like new books best (and the authors and publishers appreciate the sales, I’m sure!).

New is often a luxury. I certainly can’t afford to purchase all the books I read, despite wanting to support fellow writers and do my part to sustain the publishing industry. But when I can — and it’s a blessing that shouldn’t be taken for granted — I love to search bookstore shelves for the luxurious treasure hiding there for me.