It’s Buy Indie Day

Well, I am slated for a trip to my beloved Tattered Cover Bookstore today, or perhaps one of the groovy small bookstores along Broadway. Why? It’s May 1st! Last day of classes, Spring is here (sort of), and it’s time to break out  my long, long list of Hugo-winning novels to read. I’m practically salivating.

Here’s the repost of Buy Indie Day–where will you go (today or this weekend) to support your indie boosktore? Or, what’s on your summer reading shelf?

Tattered Cover Bookstore: endangered species?

I have to say, as much as I would rather be living in a bigger city like New York or Chicago, Denver is a pretty damn good place to be. First of all, we have the Tattered Cover.  If you’ve ever been to the Mile High City and had the chance to visit, well then, I don’t need to explain its coolness to you. If you haven’t—let me just say its an amazing labyrinth of books and cozy armchairs everywhere. It’s where I had the chance to hear authors such as Dan Simmons, Eldon Thompson, and Steve Wingate. I wish I could have seen Jamie Ford’s reading of his debut Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, since I had planned to attend for months and months, but alas, I couldn’t at the last minute.

The Tattered Cover has continued to grow despite all the indie bookstore corpses that have begun to litter the American landscape. That doesn’t mean it’s safe from such a demise sometime in the future.

No bookseller is.

So, when author Joe Finder sent out a tweet asking to make May 1st “International Buy Indie Day“–when everyone commits to buy a book (or lots of books) from an independent bookseller–I was all for it. Kevin Guilfoile expanded on said great idea with ways to mobilize and coordinate the effort among writers everywhere.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it:

1) go to the Facebook group and sign up!

2) if you’re an author, go to Kevin’s site and tell him which bookstore you’ll be at on May 1st; if you’re a reader, find out where your favorite author might be, and

3) retweet this to friends everywhere and blog about it.

Last but not least, I’d love to know what bookstore you’ll be at  on May 1st :)

Inside the Pantry of Fun

No time to really write up a decent post today, so instead I leave you with two fun signs from my pantry. A friend gave me the postcard a while back, and I happened upon the sign while doing my Ph.D. studies on Henry James. Made me laugh out loud when I saw it. Enjoy.

Something old, something new, something borrowed…

…makes me feel rather blue.

I read this article posted by my wonderful agent Richard Curtis on the whole misadventure of buying used books.  Perhaps “misadventure” isn’t the right word, either, as I am one who on occasion purchases a well-worn novel in the hopes of saving a few pennies. Most of the time, though, I’m very conscious of wanting to support the author and publishing industry, so I buy it new–and alas, in hardback. I’ve asked my best friend to give me gift certificates to Borders and the Tattered Cover for the next few birthdays and Christmases. It’s made her shopping for me 99.9% easier, and made me feel less like a schmuck every time I sneak in to a used bookstore for a little goody now and then.

What I plan to buy next:
The Road by Cormac McCarthy (I know I need to read it, but oh, sounds like a tragic tale to have to read)
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke (it won the 2005 Hugo award. How could I not read it?)
Rabelais and His World by Mikhail Bakhtin  (strange addition, I know, but I teach from the text every semester. Isn’t about time I stopped bugging the library for their copy, and ante up for copy of my own?)