Black Friday is upon us!

Retail workers around the world are bracing themselves for the holiday rush, and though it officially starts today, the Booksmith is READY, cowboys and cowgirls. We've already had crowds the last few weeks (THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU), we have a big beautiful gift book table front and center, and we have this fancy gift guide on the internet! And this Tumblr with tons of recommendations on it! You can shop on our website or call us in the store and we'll wrap and ship your presents basically anywhere. If it's a really cool destination, like Hawaii, I think a lot of booksellers would be happy to deliver it personally for a nominal shipping and handling fee. Us Booksmithies are wildly aware of how lucky we are to have such a fiercely loyal customer base that shows up every year and takes our advice on gifts and walks away with presents for most of their family from our humble little shoppe.

But if I can get on my preachy high horse for a minute: if you're thinking of not buying local, reconsider. We may not carry a really obscure copy of an academic book on the statistics of manatee migrations that you think would be a killer gift for your dad, but because of our space, what we do offer is a highly curated and super-considered selection of anything lots of kinds of people will love. So if you re-calibrate your expectations to walk in our doors and see what we recommend, we have 51 years of experience in your neighborhood, and our staff has cumulatively some 20 higher ed degrees and hundreds of years experience reading and seeing what works for our customers. So keep it local this year! Fight the internet conglomerate beast! WE PAY OUR TAXES! Things are cheaper online because companies don't incur the costs of having a shop of crazy brilliant, super-excited booksellers running around helping you, with lights and heat on, with rent costs in our neighborhood and then funneling tax money back into the community we share. So yeah it would be nice to save a few bucks on a book or gift, BUT AT WHAT COST? Those discounts are doing something bigger. They're changing the world, and this year you can put your money where your ideals are and decide which world you wanna live in.

Here at the Booksmith we are eager to help you walk away with the best gift for your friend or family member because, really, gifts and books are all we care about. They're our full-time jobs and our hobbies at home. We know our stuff and we're so excited about it, that we want to help you choose the perfect gift. So stop in, say hi, and let us work our holiday magic!

Weighing What You Read, Let's Be So Happy This Year

Subtitle: Fat Hatred is soooo 2006

I'm going to ignore the non existent pressure of being the first of my colleagues to blog in this new shiny year...hell this new shiny DECADE.
On my walk home from work yesterday, I got to thinking about how my jeans were feeling snugger than usual. The thoughts that followed were the predictable Rube Goldberg-ing of my self image down the rabbit hole zeitgeist that has been the cultural moment of Hannah Montana, the death of two Brazilian supermodels from anorexia, and let us not forget Natalie Portman in Black Swan.

In short, I felt fat. Well, let's be honest... I am fat. My instinct when I re-remember my size in late December is to buy a crappy magazine detailing all the ways I can become someone else...the obvious...the eat less move more platitudes. Well, this year....I'm calling bullshit on that impulse.

Let's look at the facts:

I love my job.
I love my school.
I love my friends.
I love my family. (mostly)
I love my fella.
I have run (not walked mind you) 3 marathons while fitting into Lane Bryant's finery.

So why then, do I have to have a private meltdown every January about my waist to hip ratio? (With my luck a Doctor is reading this and preparing a comment with a litany of HORRIFYING studies detailing just how damn important that particular ratio is but I'll take my chances)

My life is pretty full, and so are my spanx. Must they be opposed?

So, for 2011................................................................................inhale......

I'm done giving my money to magazines that profit off of me feeling less than. I'm done giving my money to authors who want to sell me something that can't be sold.

This year, the only diet I am going on is a financial one. The money I spend on books will be books I want to read. Books that nourish and challenge me. Books and magazines that actually offer something. More Muriel Rukeyser!!!! (lots of her, and other size friendly feminists in our poetry section)

No more of the vapid glossy plateau- busting simulacrums that have repeated themselves for the last 40 years. I am going to spend my money locally, and only at stores that sell a size 14....(the new average for ladies in this here country.) I am going to buy local in season foods, from local farmers, local merchants. I am going to ignore national chains of most ilks. They make their money when we are fat and sad.


So, to all my chubby brethren, I say let us be strong this year, and be satisfied with what we have this very moment. Let us be so damn happy. If dropping 80 lbs is part of that, that's fine, but ....let's seek that change in a positive key. Let's love ourselves healthier. Let's buy books we want to read, clothes we look amazing in, food we love. Let's start that now. Not after we finish "ironically reading" a SELF magazine checklist written by a 21 year old intern who lives on a diet of Yogi tea and Fiber one.


...and to all my skinny cousins out there...perhaps this year you can resolve to treat yourself better as well...

...and if you are one of those people who already treats yourself and your cat to posh designer everythings...then...maybe this year you can challenge yourself to find beauty in diversity. Read, live and love a outside of your comfort zone... (us fatties do it all the time!!!)

All my love to anyone who gave me their precious time to read this little rant. Happy New Year to everyone...just as you are.

Virtual books, from your local--- literal store... (also, is the ebook fluid? ((creepy))

This past Friday Google announced that it will be selling ebooks, and we did too. We will be selling our ebooks... ON THE INTERNETS! With Google. It's a complicated relationship, but all good pairings are. This is huge. It will mean that if you want to continue to support us, and read on your Android/ nook, ipad, sony....., you can! We are trying to keep up with you tech savvies as best we can, and we are so grateful to be able to offer virtual books, through our literal store. By buying your ebooks from us you are shopping locally and keeping your money in the community. You are saying that you like us, and that you want us around...and we want to be around! Having cool events, selling quirky cool & chic gifts, employing friendly, nerdy and attractive locals to help you find the perfect book you never knew you wanted to read.

TANGENT (short)

This may sound paranoid...but does anyone else think it is weird that once you buy an ebook, the publisher can "update" the contents? That's cool for fixing spelling errors, and addendums to introductions; but isn't it also a little 1984 spooky? The book is then fluid, changeable and not wholly yours? Wasn't it a year ago Amazon yanked 1984 from people's kindles, and refunded their money due to some copyright infringement?

Just the idea that someone could creep into you house, and pull a book from your shelf and rip some pages out, or just TAKE it (and leave the $ at the foot of your bed) is enough for me to want to continue to own the physical book.

I do dig some reading devices, especially the one's without DRM.
I'm not afraid of technology, I'm just not completely trusting of the idea of any "cloud" holding my "virtual bookshelf". Join me for another paranoid moment....

What if something happens to that cloud? Will this moment in history be looked upon as a dark age?

Keep your books, and print out your important emails. (just sayin')

Thanks for reading, however you choose to do it.

Women, Whiskey, Per Petterson and Other Sweeping Generalizations.

Today marks the end of my short relationship with Evan Williams brand Whiskey. Last night, the events manager and I got in a "little" debate about Franzen on the cover of Time. At least that's what I think we were arguing about. It may have been about the cable bill ...I can't say for sure but I can say this; women are the driving economic force in the book industry. We run the stores, buy the books, read the books and gift the books. For all the men out there, I acknowledge you and thank you for your presence too, though today I am just giving the ladies a "what what."

I don't want to detract from Franzen, or any other white male novelist, goodness knows I love Raymond Carver. I just want to see all the lady novelists getting equal critical attention. I don't think we are quite there yet.

Name Drop Time:

When I was walking Per Petterson back to his awaiting line of (mostly female) fans, he said to me....this industry is a woman's industry...but men are the ones getting published.... (or something to that effect). When he said that, I nearly planted one on him, but I'm a professional so I restrained myself. I complimented him on how he answered Diane Rehm's question about one of his character's apparent "alcoholism". Rehm was pushing the topic, and I thought it was so typical, how we in the states rush to pathologize ....everything. The character got drunk a few times....and she needed a diagnosis, from Per. Sigh.

I guess it took Per mentioning this gender discrepancy for me to finally have license into feeling the way I did when I rethought the Time cover..."Great American Novelist". I of course note the dissonance in needing a man to agree with me in order to bring this topic up publicly....but I am working on it...and it doesn't hurt my case that Per agrees.

What do I take away from these loosely connected meditations? I love the ladies of Brookline. The women who work here, shop here, and speak here. Sometimes deconstructive literary diagnostics are just reductive, and miss the point.

Also, no more whiskey. It's better to read about.

Rain+Coffee+Reading = :)

Splashing boots.  Toes wiggling in wet sandals.  Drenched Gortex rain gear. Mirage of colors resembling umbrellas.  Every other hand enveloped around a coffee...aah!  It feels a lot like the pacific northwest around here.  Those of you who know me will probably know that I often miss the west coast mountains and -- yes I know I'm crazy -- the gray, wet northwest misty weather.  I'll take a week straight of rain over the hot, humid sun any day.

Another thing that reminds me of the northwest corner of the US are independent stores, and Brookline, in this respect, is very much like that.  There are so few chain stores lurking around every corner here (well, until you hit the streets of Boston...).  There's something weird about one-stop shopping.  Sure it's convenient at times, but I don't think you have as many choices nor do you have the benefit of an experienced staff.  Need a game?  Stop by Eureeka, they'll be glad to demo a game for you.  Are you crafty with paper or want to try bookmaking?  The Paper Source is right down the block.  Whether on the go or hanging out, Peet's brews a fabulous cup of coffee -- with or without the fancy extras.  Ice cream?  There are quite a few places that have their own unique flavor and feel -- not to mention the bajillion wonderful restaurants around here.  And, of course, the Booksmith where we aspire to hand you the books that you want, not just the titles that are popular.

As I wandered around Brookline this past week doing various things, I realized that the collage of independent businesses really gives this town a unique appeal.  Imagine if every town was run by chain stores -- the same ones you have in your town, would be the same ones in your grandparents' town, and at the vacation spots you pass through.  Wouldn't seeing the same places -- all around the world -- get boring and repetitive?  I mean at that point, why even go out of town?  Part of the fun of traveling is exploring all the different places and stores.  You learn so much about the town that way!

I think independent and locally owned businesses encourage people to be themselves rather than follow the example of the greedy corporates who only care about your money and world domination.  Okay, maybe that's an overstatement.  Maybe...  But local businesses aren't cookie cutters.  (Did you know that the books at your local chains, like Borders and Barnes and Noble, aren't exactly influenced by the local public?  It's all popularity contests and overplayed marketing schemes.  Their merchandise is ordered in an office somewhere in a different state.  They don't even know their customers.)  Local stores let people explore the community, connect with others, and learn that long forgotten virtue of respect.  There's also that small town feel, where you can slow down and enjoy the moments -- something many frantic people should stop and experience -- in this crazy, fast paced world that we live in!