A Girl Walks Into a Bookstore...

In 2007, as part of its 80th birthday celebration, the Strand Bookstore at the corner of 12th and Broadway in New York City (famous for its slogan “18 Miles of Books”) decided to poll its customers for their 80 favorite books. There are some surprising books on this list, which is made up almost exclusively of fiction. There are many I've read, and a few I'd like to try. Here’s the list they came up with (the books I’ve read are bolded): To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald Catcher in the Rye, by JD Salinger Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand The Fellowship of the Rings, by JRR Tolkien One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, by JK Rowling Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov 1984, by George Orwell On the Road, by Jack Kerouac Gone With the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy The Br...

Last night, I went to see Michael Gruber (author of The Book of Air and Shadows , also author of the more recently published The Forgery of Venus ) read and sign his books at Partners & Crime bookstore in the Village. I have to admit here and now that I’ve never read anything he’s written, but I went anyways because, well, book readings are my idea of fun. The talk Gruber gave was pretty casual and liberally sprinkled with humor--literally, toilet humor. He began by talking about art— The Forgery of Venus is about forging a Velazquez painting, and how a forger not only wants to paint like someone, they actually want to be that painter. This, apparently, is one of the major themes of the novel. Then Gruber gave us a history of western art in about three minutes, beginning with the caves at Lascaux and ending with the urinal that was submitted as artwork in the 1920s. Gruber joked about the fact that all his books have “of” in the title—it’s marketing, not him, who decides what t...

Last night I went to a book reading at the Housing Works Bookstore. Located on Crosby Street in SoHo, its a used bookstore associated with the Housing Works thrift stores that uses its proceeds to contribute towards fighting AIDS. The bookstore itself is one of the coolest bookstores I’ve ever been in, with a half-level upstairs with a spiral staircase, and a café at the back. Three authors read from their work, then answered a few questions and signed their books. It was an evening of historical fiction; the authors were Jennifer Cody Epstein (author of The Painter From Shanghai , about a Chinese post-Impressionist painter), Joanna Hershon ( The German Bride , about a German Jewish woman in Santa Fe in the 1860s), and Hillary Jordan ( Mudboud ; about the Mississippi Delta after WWII). After they read, the authors talked a little bit about where they got their inspiration from, and about their writing processes. As a writer myself, its always interesting to hear how other writers writ...

It has come to my attention that there’s a literary agency called BookEnds (whose blog is listed on my sidebar because it’s a really, really interesting look at what agents look for when the look to take on a new author). Anyways, I may have to change the title of this blog, so if anyone has any suggestion, leave a comment and I’ll consider it. I’m afraid this blog has become just another run-of-the-mill book blogs, so I need a title that really grabs the reader’s attention. The other day I was talking to an acquaintance where the conversation turned to independent bookstores and the sad demise of them. This subject has of course been a topic of conversation for a long time, and with the meteoric rise of e-retailers, won't get any better. My acquaintance told me the following story: she was in search of a relatively rare book that he local indie bookstore didn’t have. Rather than let my acquaintance go to Barnes and Noble or Borders, or even Amazon.com, the clerk recommended she tr...