Five Business Days

In five business days, I will leave this store and cease to be an official Brookline Booksmith bookseller. It's such a strange thing to think about, and it hasn't fully settled in my mind, but it's official. I've given my two weeks notice, I've come up with my goodbye present to the store, and my congratulatory new job presents to myself arrived at my apartment a few hours ago. I'm getting my affairs in order and I'm leaving, I'm really leaving.

As much as I'm looking forward to my new job, I already miss this one. I walk into work every day and say hello to my coworkers, who have become some of my best friends in the world. Next week, I won't know if Paul is wearing a bandana that day, or if Shuchi has gotten her hair cut and nobody has noticed except for me, or if something ludicrous happened on the floor yesterday. I won't know if a shipment of event books is late or if a cool new promo poster came in, but I will find out when lentil soup is back in stock at Trader Joe's. I won't know if Anna found her perfect snack, if anyone convinced Amy to get a burrito today, or if Ric went kayaking with his wife. I won't know the myriad of little details that have been imprinted into my mind, ones that have taken me years to learn and predict. Slowly but surely I'll learn new things about new people, but for now? Honestly, is Paul wearing a bandana today? That's my favorite version of Paul.

Brookline Booksmith is hiring right now, and if you're interested you should apply. E-mail Dana Brigham (dana@brooklinebooksmith.com), she's a good judge of character. She's grouped together this staff of booksellers, and she needs a few more. Maybe you'll get to sit in the chair I'm sitting in, be the new person who shelves history, or work in the Giftsmith. Maybe you'll really like hosting events and join our events team. Maybe you'll really like heading to Anna's Taqueria and getting a quesadilla with your new coworkers. Maybe you'll be excellent at puns.

I'll go gently into this good night. Goodbye, Brookline Booksmith. It's been fun.

My entire personality whittled down into a gif.

Jamie's Summer 2014

This summer has gone by in a flash. Maybe it was the reappearance of the polar vortex, reducing the nights I fell asleep with my face pressed against my a/c unit dramatically. Maybe it was because I started being excited about summer at the end of April. Maybe it was actually a short summer.

A lot of things squeezed themselves into this summer. I had a week-long vacation. My events team and I won Boston Magazine's Best of Boston 2014 Best Reading Series. I discovered the joy of having an undercut when it is humid outside. I lost my office key at least 20 times. I bought a bird from the JFK Presidential Library and Museum gift shop. Garrison Keillor rubbed my hair. I read at least 30, if not 40 books this summer. I discovered how wonderful Elizabeth Gilbert is. I went to the beach. I planned our fall event calendar. I had a good time.

I'll end this with my submission for the Booksmith Staff Talent Show. I wrote a sestina about spatial reasoning and filmed myself in my parents' backyard in the Southwest. It was 107 degrees outside, and I would have done more takes if I thought I could survive any longer. My siblings helped out by showing off their skills (my sister is especially brilliant at it but not when she's trying really hard not to laugh), and poetic magic was born. Enjoy.

This Week in Events - July 22-27

This week in Events! 

Tuesday, July 22 at 7pm

LIQUOR
Lesley and David Solmonson

Twelve Bottle Bar

The husband-and-wife team behind 12bottlebar.com visit with their informative and passionate new book.  They show you how to create a versatile home bar with only twelve bottles: seven hard liquors, one liqueur, two vermouths, and two bitters, which can make over 200 delicious cocktails. This event is co-sponsored by El Dorado Rum, and there will be drinks at the event! 

Wednesday, July 23 at 7pm

FICTION

Celeste Ng and Jennifer de Leon

Everything I Never Told You and Wise Latinas: Writers on Higher Education

    Unquestionably Marilyn and James Lee’s favorite child, Lydia is meant to be the embodiment of her parents’ dreams—popular at school and a future career as a doctor, not a homemaker. When her dead, waterlogged body is found at the local lake, the Lee family falls apart. James, consumed by guilt, Marilyn, bent on revenge, Nathan, certain neighborhood bad boy Jack is involved, and Hannah, the youngest, who realizes things the others do not. As loss and grief intertwine, dragging the family down, Ng writes with a merciless beauty, portraying humanity at its most vulnerable. Here's a review from The Boston Globe. 

    In Wise Latinas: Writers on Higher Education, Jennifer de Leon has put together an anthology of essays representing the Latina experience in academia. The essays range from dealing with traditional cultural expectations, to navigating the gap between American and Latina cultures, to embracing the change that college inevitably invokes. de Leon provides a platform for Latina writers to share their personal experiences in this rich collection. Here's a great review from Kirkus. 

Thursday, July 24 at 7pm

FICTION and MEMOIR

Edan Lepucki and Joanna Rakoff

California and My Salinger Year

    Dan Chaon calls Edan Lepucki’s California “a wholly original take on the postapocalypse genre,” and he is so, so right. Cal and Frida, living in a shack in the wilderness after the apocalypse has wiped away the only world they have ever known, survive by seeking solace through the other. Their life—hard but their own—is turned upside down when Frida discovers she is pregnant. Unsure of their ability to raise a child in the wilderness, the couple seek out the nearest settlement, finding themselves in a guarded and paranoid community—one that provides ostensible security but has dangers of its own. Does this book sound familiar? Stephen Colbert has taken this book under his wing, and it's the current pick for Reblog Book Club, Tumblr's official book club. 

    In Joanna Rakoff’s My Salinger Year, she recounts the year she spent as an assistant at J.D. Salinger’s literary agency, contemplating her dreams to become a poet. In this love letter to books, youth, and New York, she writes of romance and realism, of learning how to come into her own as well as figuring out who she wants to be and navigating the world on her own terms. Here's a review from the New York Times' Sunday Book Review.

Friday, July 25 at 7pm

FUN TIMES

Booksmith Staff Talent Show

Join us for our annual Booksmith Staff Talent Show where we show off our talents, literary and otherwise. Booksellers let their hair down and a fun time is had by all. 

Sunday, July 27 at 10:30am

Children's Storytime

Do you love picture books? Join us in our children’s section as our fine children’s team reads stories aloud every third Saturday and last Sunday of the month.

As always, if you would like a signed copy of a book but cannot make an event, call us at 617-566-6660 or order online and put 'signed copy' in the comments field.

This Week in Events

This Week in Events!

Monday, July 14 at 7:30pm

Brookline Booksmith Book Club

Our book club meets at 7:30 pm on the second Monday of each month in the downstairs Writers’ and Readers’ Room. They will be discussing Teju Cole's Open City. 

Wednesday, July 16 at 7pm

FICTION

Rebecca Makkai

The Hundred-Year House

A love story and a ghost story all at once, Rebecca Makkai (The Borrower) presents a dazzling novel about fate, family, and the incredible surprises life offers. Zee, a Marxist literary scholar, and her husband Doug move into the coach house of Laurelfield, her family’s 100-year-old estate. Doug is supposedly writing a biography about poet Edwin Parfitt but actually spends most of his time falling in love with Zee’s step-brother’s wife, writing teen novels for a book packaging company, and trying to break into Laurelfield’s attic, which holds records of the arts colony based there in the 1920’s. As the narrative zips back in time, we learn the secrets of Laurelfield, hidden from Doug but laid bare to the reader in an immensely satisfying literary scavenger hunt.

 

Thursday, July 17 at 7pm

Small Press Book Club

Our new book club selects readings from independent presses. Read something off the beaten path! Free and open to the public, meeting third Thursday of each month at 7pm. This month we are reading The Expedition to the Baobab Tree by Wilma Stockenstrom, published by Archipelago Books. 

 

Friday, July 18 at 7pm

FICTION

Deborah Harkness

The Book of Life

Deborah Harkness joins us with the long-awaited third and final book of the All Souls Trilogy. Historian and witch Dana Bishop and vampire scientist Matthew Clairmont are back and reunited with the cast of characters from A Discovery of Witches, with one important exception. As they search for Ashmole 782 and its missing pages, Dana and Matthew draw ever closer to learning what the witches discovered centuries ago. From ancestral homes to university laboratories, with a mix of ancient knowledge and modern science, The Book of Life brings the All Souls Trilogy to a satisfying end.

Saturday, July 19 at 10:30am

Children's Storytime

Do you love picture books? Join us in our children’s section as our fine children’s team reads stories aloud every third Saturday and last Sunday of the month.

As always, if you would like a signed copy of a book but cannot make an event, call us at 617-566-6660 or order online and put 'signed copy' in the comments field.

How to Select a Beach Read: A Quiz

Last weekend I went to the beach and brought along a giant jug of water, a picnic fun blanket, a ton of sunblock (reapply every two hours!), and Knausgaard's My Struggle: Book 1 in paperback. I was the weirdo on the beach holding a 400+ book with a Norwegian guy's face on it instead of lighter fare, stepping out of my friends' conversation to read about Karl Ove's funeral preparations for his father and jumping back in only to make comments like 'Such visceral descriptions! Can I tell you how they really found his dad?'

I'm pretty good at deciding what constitutes a good beach read. Here is my list of important questions to ask yourself when selecting one:

1. Will the book fit over my face so I can have a brief respite from the sun?
2. Will I be mad if any of the following touches it?
1. liquids, including but not limited to: water, saltwater, beer, slushie
2. sunblock, especially the spray kind
3. hot dog remnants
4. sand
5. a child or a sweaty friend
3. Will I regret carrying it however long I need to carry it? 
4. My brain will be in a delicate, overheated and possibly dehydrated state. Will this book push me over the edge and make me monologue about esoteric topics? 
5. Can this book be used as self-defense against seagulls?

Important things, all. If you guys need me I'll be at a beach with Book 2, talking about whatever minutiae Karl Ove writes about in this one, completely engrossed.

Knausgaard goes along really well with my beach bag, even though he's published by FSG.

Blackout! An Overly Dramatic Retelling

The incessant whirring of rechargeable flashlights will forever sound like the beginning of the apocalypse to me. Anna and Liz were in the Giftsmith when the blackout hit, and Anna immediately went to a display and grabbed rechargeable flashlights in the shape of ducks, tigers, and owls.* They gathered an armful and looked for their compatriots, distributing animals at will, issuing the instruction of 'Keep squeezing!'

Customers fled (and by fled I mean a few of them kind of hung out and kept browsing, using their phones as flashlights). Ric, the ever glorious Ric, kept things calm. He and Liz directed traffic and cleared the store in no time. I was downstairs putting everything away after a really great event with Box Brown, and as the store plunged into darkness I thanked Box, wherever he was (upstairs, actually), for having a shorter presentation. If it were ten or so minutes longer we would have been plunged into darkness together, reaching out to hold onto the closest Andre the Giant fan or comics aficionado until the emergency lights came on.

After the store was cleared, we stood around the registers, rechargeable flashlights whirring. Sandra's rechargeable flashlight was a tiger, the best animal out of the three. Katie was briefly locked out as she was changing the event board outside. I realized I had lost my key, which set me off on a long journey of sadness and whirring, culminating in Katie finding my key because she knows the event space like the back of her hand, and because she was no longer stranded on the sidewalks of Brookline.

We banded together. We used our animal flashlights to illuminate the manager's binder with instructions for what to do during a blackout. Liz called NStar and had the proud title of being 'the first to report an outage.' We made a whirring train of light into the Booksmith back rooms, we checked plugs, turned lights off, and Ric briefly scared everyone by claiming someone was still huddled in a corner of the UBC. 

We survived. The store is open today, shiny, bright, and fully operational, to the point where I could film this handy instructional video starring Anna:

*We actually have easily accessible flashlights, but Anna was shrouded in darkness and could only focus on the rechargeables. I think the blackout was made better for it, and now several booksellers can answer the question, "Do you sell flashlights?" 

Post-Keillor Roundup

Last night we hosted Garrison Keillor to a full and enthusiastic crowd. Months ago over a beer, I had promised Paul that he could do the introduction after he confessed how adamantly he loved A Prairie Home Companion. He did a magnificent job getting the audience amped and ready, and when Garrison Keillor took the mic we were all holding our breath because we couldn't quite believe that he was there, within arm's reach, leaning against the pole Rob Sheffield once danced around, breathing the same air we were while talking in that voice we knew so well. 

He spoke for about an hour and a half, telling stories, reciting a poem, and at one point walking so far into the audience that he unplugged the microphone by accident. I don't think I've ever laughed so hard and so consistently during an author event at the store ever, and when I looked around the room everyone was laughing as hard as I was, if not harder. He signed books, posed for pictures, and charmed the daylights out of everyone. At the end of a two+ hour signing line, he gamely posed for several photographs with booksellers. I had just gotten a haircut, and Garrison admitted that he wanted to ruffle my hair. I offered up my head, and he placed his giant hand upon my head and ruffled my hair a few times, much to all of our amusement. 

Shuchi, Garrison, Paul and I laughing about our "double date" pose

This was definitely one of my favorite author events, and I'm glad we were able to host him. The audience was delighted (and delightful!) and I'll sign out with my favorite photograph of the evening: 

Paul was really really starstruck.

 

Samesies

Yesterday, I walked into the break room to say hello to Tom. We would be running an event together later in the day and I wanted to check in and see how he was doing. When I saw him, I stopped. Tom was wearing a dark blue button up and black pants, notable only because I was wearing the exact same thing. When I pointed this out, Tom argued that we were wearing different shades so it wasn't completely the same, but it didn't matter. It was no longer a Tuesday, it was a Samesies Tuesday.

A few minutes later, Tom paged me with another coincidence. Our manager, Dana, was also wearing a blue button up and black pants. This type of thing happens too often. Is it because we like the same things, is it because we are on the same wavelength, is it because we read the memo? Is it because we see each others' clothing and think, "I want that too and I'm sure I will look excellent wearing it"? The bookstore may never know. 

Springtime Fever

I have spent the past six days in a feverish state, slowly wading back and forth between thinking I'm well and acknowledging that I've caught the cold that everyone seems to have, but really, really hard. Yes, I had a fever, yes, I have been blowing my nose on Vicks-scented tissue for the past week, yes, I have been coughing up a lung. All of these things are terrible, but the worst part about this is that I'm too sick to read, electing instead to sit in bed with my eyes closed and moaning every so often to indicate I'm alive.  That's horrible too, but what's even worse is that I am 65% done with The Empathy Exams and it's been eating at me that every time I crack the book open I find myself with a splitting headache, which makes me even more furious because the book is really good and I want to finish it already.

Maybe I should have seen this coming. Friday night, I settled down to bed with a galley of Megan Abbott's The Fever, which I finished with glee. I fell asleep shortly afterwards, and when I woke up the next Saturday, there it was. A fever, 100.3 degrees. Now that I am out of my feverstate, I find it amusing that was the book I read. Did The Fever induce my own? I've asked another bookseller to read it to test out my theory. If Tom is struck down next...

I think I'm getting better. I just picked up a galley of Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher. It's an epistolary novel, and I adore epistolary novels, and I also adore the fact that I seem to have enough brainpower to recognize that it is an epistolary novel. I'm on the mend!

Moore-mania

I've loved the work of Christopher Moore for years. I remember reading Fluke in the summer between high school and college, not sure what to make of it but also being astounded that you can write that in a book and get away with it. Absurd, glorious, bawdy--I thought it was all fantastic.

As a full-fledged adult, I've been lucky enough to meet Christopher Moore and even luckier to meet his legion of equally irrelevant fans. They've made bad jokes and I've made worse jokes, but it makes me love them all even more. Over the years I've collected bits and pieces of publisher-distributed Christopher Moore paraphernalia: bookmarks, a Fool t-shirt, a poster with the cover of Sacré Bleu. Yesterday morning, though, I found my favorite Chris Moore item, a three-pair of stockings sent to me from the man himself.

Christopher Moore-commissioned stockings, a copy of The Serpent of Venice, and a little gnome just because.

We have a whole box of them, which Chris will be randomly distributing during the event. Want some of your own? Well, get your tickets at brooklinebooksmith.com/tickets and head to Coolidge Corner on May 7. You'll know you're there when you find yourself among a legion of rabid fans, all wearing thigh-high stockings and clutching their own copy of The Serpent of Venice.

In Three Bookmarks

After lugging my borrowed copy through four countries, I finally finished The Goldfinch just in time for its Pulitzer Prize win. I borrowed it from Lydia, who borrowed it from Natasha, who had grabbed a galley copy of the book over a year ago. It has been loved, very, very loved, with three bookmarks, unintentionally bent pages and all.

Bookmark #1

When I was in Boston Logan waiting for my first of (too) many flights, I opened the book and discovered this bookmark on page 37, holding Lydia's page. It was made by the insanely talented Julia while she had a broken arm, and I'm not surprised that while wobbly, the entire image is legible! I'm happy to say Julia is completely healed (yes, it took me that long to finish this book) and is in tip top shape. I used it for my bookmark for a little bit, until I realized that meant Lydia would be at a loss when I returned the book.



Bookmark #2

I have to go to bookstores wherever I go. In Jakarta, I was attempting to navigate a mall with a friend and extremely limited knowledge of Bahasa (terima kasih!) when we happened upon a machine next to the mall directory. After using the touch screen to type out 'book,' out came this slip with very careful directions to the closest bookstore.  I don't think I've ever been so happy to see a touch screen in my life. This slip of paper made me so delighted, and in my desire to keep it forever I put it in the safest place I knew--the book I was currently reading.


Bookmark #3

Once I had gotten back to Boston, I put The Goldfinch on my kitchen table in an attempt to read it during breakfast. Almost immediately my roommate noticed and mentioned that she wanted to read it, so we started reading it in tandem. It was fun to see our respective bookmarks jump ahead bit by bit.

My roommate's bookmark of choice is a Brookline Booksmith bookmark (of course), continually supplied by me.


I'm glad to part from it. I have held this book in my hands, used it as a pillow among a sea of airport sleepers, been furious at myself for carrying a four-pound book with me when I am notorious for going over my luggage weight--in short, spent more than enough time with it. The Goldfinch is now safely nestled in Lydia's box, sans duct tape, ready to be read again.

Wait

Coolidge Corner is full of pedestrians, and I'm one of them. After being born and raised in suburbia, this ability to walk everywhere is a delight. Every day I run into someone I know, whether it be on my way to work, at the coffee shop, or when I'm getting a sandwich. I know you, you know me, we keep an eye out for one another. This is a very tangible community, and I'm glad to do my part in keeping it that way. 

During yesterday's event with Boston Globe's Scott Helman and Jenna Russell, I was standing next to one of our event coordinators and looking out at the crowd. It was a little after 7, and Katie was waiting for the right moment to start. I was getting worried because one of our regular event attendees, a polite older gentleman, hadn't shown up yet. He had sworn he would attend, and I asked her to wait a little bit longer. A few minutes later, we heard footsteps on the stairs and there he was. Katie started the event, no one was the wiser, I breathed a sigh of relief. 

Vignettes

I was walking in to our back rooms the other day with a piece of seaweed in my hand and one in my mouth when I passed Paul, who was holding a muffin in his hand, which was lovingly made by our store manager Dana. We looked at each other and started laughing. I should thank Dana for this, the fact that she has brought together a horde of snack-obsessed booksellers that are comfortable laughing at themselves.

A French woman came in to ask if we had any books about food trucks, and although we didn't have food truck specific books on hand I recommended L.A. Son by Roy Choi. Mei from the food truck Mei Mei Street Kitchen was browsing the Cooking section at the time and struck up a conversation with the woman. It turns out that the woman's son ran an Asian food truck in the south of France, and later that day she and her daughter-in-law went to visit Mei Mei Kitchen over in Audubon Circle. A chance meeting became a full-blown friendship.

A customer e-mailed us to ask if we could take a picture outside of the store to wish her boyfriend a happy birthday. Brookline Booksmith helped solidify their relationship--they bonded over their mutual love of our store, which continues even though they've moved from the area.

A few months ago, sidewalk renovations were being done right outside of the bookstore. I remember looking at the sidewalk, the concrete peeled away to reveal layers of brick underneath, remnants of Coolidge Corner's past. This space has gone from Paperback Booksmith to Brookline Booksmith within the past half-century, but before that this space used to be a grocery store and before that? I'll have to ask Marshall.

We're so aware that this is a place where people find each other, building friendships and relationships that continue long after you've set foot in this bookstore. The bookstore is the backdrop for several unfolding dramas, customers and employees alike. I could tell you so many little stories about this place, and you could do the same for me, vignettes coming together to make this bookstore all of ours.

Love, Love, Love.

I am possibly the loudest person who works at Brookline Booksmith. I talk incessantly about things I like, and if there is a book or author I'm obsessed with, you will know. I regularly attempt to give up coffee to try to curb my enthusiasm but I keep going back because I love talking with our local baristas.

Yes, this is a pitchfork. The construction is questionable,
so please do not spear villagers or rampaging monsters with it.

Last night we held an event for Jeremy P. Bushnell's crazy new book, The Weirdness. Booksellers loved it, so upon arrival he was presented with a pitchfork. Rather than run screaming from the bookstore, Jeremy was delighted that his inaugural event came with a lovingly-crafted present. Katie even used the pitchfork in her introduction to emphasize how The Weirdness "skewers the lit machine." The audience was appreciative, and I hid in the back so that I would be less likely to fist pump Katie (for such a great intro!) and Jeremy (who actually used the pitchfork!) during the event.

While my crafting skills don't come out for every author event, I try to make sure we have events that we can all be excited about--whether it be a fledgling author, a poet we've admired for ages, or someone whose work has struck us. The more times the word 'love' is invoked, the better.

How to Make a Bookseller Fall in Love With You*

It's Valentine's Day. Cards are flying off our racks, harried-looking men are running into our store with bouquets of flowers bought from Trader Joes, and my gentleman caller sent me a box full of Bon Chon chicken (all drumsticks!!!).

Since I'm in the holiday spirit (and no longer ravenous for snacks) I'll dispense some advice for making a bookseller fall in love with you and your book. I hope you didn't think this was about making a bookseller actually fall in love with you, even though I think it would probably involve a lot of food and bookshelves we wouldn't be ashamed to merge with.

Consider us Kept!

1. Tell us we are pretty. I mean, don't tell me that, tell me that the bookstore is pretty. Tell us you like our selection, the recommendations we write, how pretty our colors are. We like compliments, and you'll see us blush a bit when you give us props for our spatial reasoning skills. 

2. Give us chocolates. We talk about food on a daily basis. It is not surprising to see booksellers pop their heads into the break room with a hopeful look that asks, "Are there snacks?" You haven't seen heartbreak until you see a hungry, snack-less bookseller who really wants a potato chip. 

James Scott (The Kept) left us a kind note with chocolates. We liked him already, but we like him even more now. "I've worked at a bookstore before," he said. "I know about snacks."  

FirstSecond can do no wrong.

3. Send us free books. I'll be honest--I love everything FirstSecond puts out and I would have been talking about these books anyway, but since I have it now? My poor co-workers will be hearing about this book for months. (By the way, we're having an event with Box Brown for his illustrated bio of Andre the Giant on 7/1!)

4. Be nice. I've put books at the forefront of my to-read list because an author was nice to me.

5. Write a good book.  This is really the most integral part of having us fall in love with you, and after you've created a work that we're bound to get excited over, send us chocolates.

*Note: This is not a ploy to get more chocolates.  Noooooooooo

March events? Already?

Here's a preview of our March schedule, and I'm really excited. I did a little dance in the Booksmith break room and alarmed a few of my co-workers, so I'm taking it to the Internet where I use words and consciously abstain from exclamation points.

• Michio Kaku, March 5.  I'm secretly in love with science (please do not tell my father, he wanted me to study biology and I staunchly refused in my not-so-rebellious youth) and Michio Kaku is one of my favorite scientists.  In addition to being an engaging speaker, he was on The Science of Doctor Who special talking about the viability of time travel and that made me adore him even more. Tickets are on sale February 3, and if you can't manage to get to the store, visit brooklinebooksmith.com/tickets. 
• Andrew Knapp and Momo, March 6. I am openly a dog lover.  There is a picture on the Booksmith Instagram of a dog kissing my face, of which I feel no shame.  I admit that I take any and all opportunities to pet dogs, their owners standing to the side to wait for the end of our love-fest and my boss standing to the side waiting for me to go back to work.  Well, Momo gives me the opportunity to work and pet a dog.  Visit gofindmomo.com to see this adorable border collie hiding Where's Waldo-like in various locales, and visit us on March 6 to meet Momo. 
• Austin Kleon, March 17. The man behind Steal Like An Artist visits with his latest, Show Your Work.  People love him for all sorts of reasons, and I love him for Newspaper Blackout, which had me laughing, crying, and then buying a pack of Sharpies and a few newspapers to see what I could create myself. 

There are so many more events on our calendar (the brilliant Helen Oyeyemi on 3/8, local Jeremy Bushnell on 3/11, Yarn Harlot Stephanie Pearl-McPhee on 3/12, and MORE) so I expect to see you waiting at the door at 9am on February 1st, pounding on the door and rabid for the release of our March event calendar...

...or you could check our website some time in February to see what our March events look like, or pick up the calendar when you visit us like you usually do, or read our whiteboard to see what's up ahead, or look at the author posters board and our event window, or visit brooklinebooksmith.com/googlecalendar.  The powers that be ask me to ask you to abstain from door pounding, so in exchange I will give a hearty high five if you ask. 

Jamie's "Resolutions"

While I'm not a fan of New Year's resolutions as I break them immediately, I'm making a few of my own this year that I promise to keep.

JAMIE'S NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS
1. Continue with my occasional habit of reading so far into the night that I fall asleep with a book on my face and wake up at 4am with the lights on
2. Continue using receipts, pay stubs, and financial documents as bookmarks so when tax time comes around I can cobble together my finances by recalling which book I was reading and when
3. Continue gathering books on my nightstand like a fiend, as my tottering and ever fluctuating bedside pile is a great place to remember where I put my iPad super safely
4. Continue using other books to weigh down the book I'm reading while I'm eating breakfast and another book to prop it up slightly
5. Continue purchasing giant over-sized books and bookshelves to house the giant over-sized books I acquired and then smaller books to fill in the shelves the over-sized books cannot fit in

and most importantly:

6. Continue being unaware of my somewhat questionable habits and blissfully read into 2014

Happy New Year!

Bookselling: An Informative Guide

In a few hours, some of the sweetest authors I know are going to be giving up their Saturday to be guest booksellers for Small Business Saturday and the Indies First movement, hanging out at InfoSmith while doling out recommendations. Kristopher Jansma (The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards) and Morris Collins (Horse Latitudes) will be here from 12-2pm, and Jessica Keener (Women in Bed) and Maryanne O'Hara (Cascade) will be here from 2-4pm.  They're excited to work at a bookstore on one of the busiest Saturdays of the year, and I salute them.

LIST OF FUN BOOKSMITH FACTS FOR OUR GUEST AUTHORS AS THEY HANG OUT AT INFOSMITH
1. We do not have a public restroom.
2. Search engines are beautiful, and Google is your friend.
3. We like wordplay and ridiculous jokes.  Just sayin'.
4. Kismet is alive and well, and you'll find yourself in the middle of a busy aisle gushing over the same book with a customer. You'll feel like you've found your reading soul mate.
5. The calendars are right behind you.
6. Still don't have a public restroom.
7. The line at the register may seem long, but we typically get you in and out of there in less than 10 minutes.
8. Gift wrapping is downstairs, and yes, it is free.
9. People read everything and are looking for all sorts of things.  This is the best part of the job, and you end up learning the most random things.
10. Busy days are the most fun, and you will definitely need to sit down once this is all over!

Stop by our store, chat with our authors, and thank you for shopping with us on Small Business Saturday.  From all of us, booksellers, giftsellers, and guest authors included--thank you for keeping us here.

Out-of-Town Booksellers

In a week, an old co-worker of mine will be visiting Boston for the first time.  I first met her when she was seventeen and still settling on her combination between sweet and surly, and even though her name is Krysten I found it prudent and appropriate to attach the 'baby' bit and affectionately call her Baby Krysten, or BK for short. We worked together at another indie bookstore, and as much as I'm looking forward to seeing her face, I'm also interested to see what she thinks of the Booksmith.

Watching booksellers move around a bookstore they're visiting is fascinating.  They walk in, searching the shelves for the section that is their specialty.  They peruse the shelf with a critical eye, murmuring, "I've read that, it was really good," "I loved that one!" and "Avoid." They'll engage you in discussion, asking about particular shelving details and examining the shelf-talkers, roaming the store to see how everything flows and what sections are put together.  Booksellers, having experienced repeated section moves and have the muscles and eye rolling to prove it, understand the entire process behind putting particular sections together and are interested in why science and sports are near one another.  Spend 30 minutes with a touring bookseller (it's impossible to spend less than thirty minutes with one, inevitably the conversation will stretch and you will be loathe to return to the job at hand) and the two of you will have doubly long to-read lists and a burning desire to visit more bookstores. 

I hope she'll like visiting the Booksmith.  I hope she'll like walking around Boston, taking the T, and seeing what the city has to offer.  I also hope she won't mind when I go into frantic Mom-mode by repeatedly asking her if she's wearing enough layers.

Can't wait to see you, BK. 

Slowly But Surely

When I moved to Boston a few years ago, I left my full collection of books at my parents' house, electing to bring select volumes and sending for more as I needed them.  Every time I go home or have a visitor from home, I bring (or ask them to bring) at least 10 books. I know I'm going to box them up and send them to my Boston address via media mail one day, but I'm holding off because this way is more fun.

Last week, I called my little brother to see if he could put together a stack for a friend of mine to pack.  I e-mailed him a list, which he promptly ignored, and when I got him on the phone it was only because he was avoiding his homework.  I had him go through a few shelves, reading aloud title after title, asking him who wrote what.  We reached San Francisco Poems by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and I asked him to pop it open and read a random poem to see if I wanted him to send it along.  After sighing repeatedly, he started reading "The Great Chinese Dragon" in a very inspired fashion. Halfway through, I asked him if he knew what it was about. "Dragons taking over Chinatown, and then people telling the dragons they can't take over Chinatown and stuffing them in basements" was his reply.  I told him what I thought it was about and debated, somehow managing to draw my sister in and starting a three-person argument about poetry, ending with my brother threatening to do his homework.

I asked for the next title. "You suck." my brother said.  I was aghast. "...by Christopher Moore."

Media mail can wait, I'm having too much fun with this.