Booksmith Visits: Montague Bookmill (montage book milk)

As fate would have it I have been called upon to attend very few weddings at this particular time in my life. It should be mentioned that I am nearing (arguably, have arrived at) a wedding-appropriate age and my lack of weddings could change, very shortly, as my peers begin pairing up. It was pairhood itself that compelled me to attend a wedding in Western Massachusetts last Saturday; my girlfriend's cousin and his partner got hitched in a sweltering town hall while morose, bulbous clouds leaked overhead. I regrettably report, I did not perform admirably. The humidity and crowds coalesced into a sharp din inside my skull and I was abruptly excused from family obligation when I refused to re-enter community space and instead hid, perched on an outside stairwell, doing breathing exercises and suckling at a can of soda as if it contained some miraculous antidote. We left, shortly afterwards, for Amherst, to relay a back up cell phone to my sister who recently had need for one.

"we're on our way to you now", I texted to her, "we are just gonna drop the phone off and leave though, I want to go to montage book milk".

iPhone's autocorrect function had traded the name "Montague Bookmill" for the abstract "montage book milk". From here on, it shall be referred to as the same.

After winding our way through some stringent student acropolis, my sister stood, barefoot, by the running car as we retold the details of our brief wedding experience. She then told us, enthusiastically, that she loved the book milk, and that I would love it too. She told me they had beer there, too, a detail that should always accompany a description told to me about any venue, if it happens to be the truth. The things I will endure while drinking a beer are many, nevermind things I actually like, such as browsing a book store. The store's catchphrase happens to be, "Books You Don't Need in a Place You Can't Find", something so tongue-in-cheek as to delight anyone, but as someone who relies on the supply and demand of the book industry to keep a business afloat and provide them their livelihood, I am downright tickled by this. Fused with the term "montage bookmilk" and a the prospect of a totally free afternoon, I'm one giddy idiot.  

As we pulled up to the Bookmilk, those turgid clouds were looking fully ominous. We moved through a heavy, wet air, into the book store. Inside, a labrynth of stairwells and sofa alcoves, antiques peppering unused corners, and books. Plenty of used books. Such a store could possibly only exist in the wilds of Western MA, where students keep a contemporary culture alive but industry is somewhat less than overbearing. There is still a certain earnest curiosity left out there, what with all that accumulated soul searching energy generated by mass quantities of 20-somethings all living, compact, in roughly the same town. In Brookline, Booksmith is known by its unique wooden floors - the creaking beauty mark of our otherwise actively current store - but we are in the Bookmilk now, and a wooden floor would be a paltry offering indeed to a behemoth of arcadia such as this. A musty smell of wood and paper lies down every narrow hallway, a leathered smell, what people believe academia will smell like when they are on the precipice of entering it. Everything creeks as you move around the store, and there are nooks and old seats to ferret out, not to mention errant curiosities closed in cabinets or left out as if arranged by some absent person, suddenly and swiftly called away. 

A flutter of typewriters 

VIP seating

Misc.

Outside the windows lining the back of the store runs the Sawmill River, a thin stream that once powered a grain mill in the same building in the early 20th century. As I was promised, there is a cafe connected, and if you are so inclined you can sit and have a beer and look out of the windows at the river hastening past. In this cafe they had a few things on tap, the most interesting of which was Oskar Blues G'night Amber Ale, which I had never tasted in draft form before. Brimming with a somewhat dewey contentment after purchasing our books, we sat outside and ate sandwiches with brie and apple, kielbasa and mustard. The beer was crisp and hoppy, the blade of its malt slicing through the thick fingertip of the air. Before long, employees came and brought the book carts and the outside displays indoors. They stood in the doorway of the book mill, side by side, wondering at the sky. Any minute now, any minute now.

The bathroom - wallpapered in worn, yellow missives.

Tell me about it.

The rain drove us out of the courtyard and, slowly, out of Montague. Through a veil of water we drove back, creeping back through route 2 towards the city, only headlights in the onslaught of rain. I would go back, willingly, eagerly. In case you, too, need an afternoon removed from reality, you should take a trip over to little Montague and take a long draft of the bookmilk. Here is where you can find it:

Montague Bookmill 440 Greenfield Rd, Montague, MA 01351 (413) 367-9206 http://www.montaguebookmill.com/

Books you don't need in a place you can't find. Get not-found for a bit and visit. 

Buy These Before I Do, Please

New used book shtuff:

All these back issues of The Believer

Four bucks a pop.

One of Dave Eggers many impeccably curated brainchildren, The Believer is ostensibly a literary journal but goes all over the map in terms of content - music, art, food, politics, film, you name it. Like any McSweeney's offering, it never fails to look like a lucid acid trip and read like a jab in the ribs. 

Pictured on top: the October 2009 issue featuring a Charles Burns/Chris Ware mash-up cover because (breaking news) Chris Ware is my soul mate and I will marry him and he will make me sign a sassy illustrated pre-nup with some really breath-taking typography and things will end badly after a year or two (tops) because that's kinda how he rolls but I will worm my way into at least one book and it will be worth it, y'all. 

Hug me.

Sad Monsters: Growling on the Outside, Crying on the Inside

You could probably buy this on the basis of Colbert's endorsement (full disclosure: author Frank Lesser is a writer and humorist for Colbert's own show, but that conflict of interest is sort of eclipsed by the fact that you've gotta be pretty hilarious and brilliant to work a gig like that anyway), OR you could get the book just to adopt the tragically adorable fuzzball on the front who, as I type this, is staring at me with soulful little eyes like the last puppy at the pound. I'm dying here. Give the li'l guy some love. 

Sayonara Home Run!: The Art of the Japanese Baseball Card

In which Japan kicks our butts at graphic design.

Do I care about baseball? Is the pope Jewish? However, it's recently come to my attention that the proud American tradition of hitting/ running/ catching/ throwing/ spitting/ butt-slapping is kind of a big deal in this city. (Pro-tip for fellow sport-atheists: you'll never see an emptier bookstore than on a Sox world series night). Fun fact: this isn't the only country that considers baseball its national pastime. If you, like everyone else in Boston, are madly in love with Koji Uehara right now, may I suggest this toothsome segue into Japan's illustrious baseball history? 

Bonus: original owner's Bazooka
bubble gum baseball card bookmark

For the sports fan, collector, or anyone with an insatiable appetite for pretty pictures (hello).

Stuff Found in Used Books

Readers of our weekly b-mail newsletter will already be familiar with our Find of the Week, a feature of the the magical scraps and ephemera that used books never fail to yield. If you're not a follower, I promise there are few better ways to kill a weekday afternoon than a leisurely browse through the archives with a hot Cup o' Noodles in hand.

What you may not know is that Paul, the sassy voice of b-mail (email paul@brooklinebooksmith.com to sign up) and long-time curator of Find of the Week, barely scratches the surface. Our used book buyers field hundreds of new arrivals every week; by my estimation at least half of those books hold not just old bookmarks but ticket stubs, polaroids, business cards, notes, lists, sketches, pressed flowers, trading cards, even money.

So while you can still get your weekly dose of scavenged weird via our newsletter, I thought I'd feature a few of the passed over finds here every once in awhile. Paul might even let me dig through his huge box of all the old newsletter finds (eight years worth! That's 416 weeks of strange stuff, for you kids keeping track at home) and post some golden oldies for the newbies.

US Department of Homeland Security
Homeland Security Investigations
Special Agent
Violent Gang Unit

 

 

In the Emergency of an Event

It's a quiet weeknight after a long, hectic day. You're through putting up with people for the time being, and maybe it's starting to rain, but that's nothing a pumpkin spice latte and an hour of bookstore browsing can't soothe away. Nothing more therapeutic than sinking into the hushed hum of a new novel on a cool Autumn night - until 450 fans come stampeding in.

Last night, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Jhumpa Lahiri graced our store with her presence, signing copies of her new book for a line of fans that snaked its way up and down all the aisles and almost reached out the front door. I love these huge events; Booksmith staff keep a tight rein on the chaos while giddy readers meet their heroes face to face.

But I always feel a sympathetic twinge for the innocent browser caught up in the bustle unsuspectingly. It doesn't happen often, but if you find yourself in a quiet store one minute and thronged by voracious readers the next (on, say, October 22nd, October 30th or November 7th), just follow this simple guide.

1) Don't panic.

2) Stick close to the walls and edge your way toward the front of the store. With a crowd pouring in this may feel like spawning upstream, but if food can do it so can you.

3) Across from the front register you will see a doorway. This is your escape hatch. Go through it.

What's this? Suddenly the teeming hordes are gone. You descend the stairs in a slight daze. While the main sales floor fills to capacity, you have the Used Book Cellar all to yourself. Chairs, laid-back music, one-of-a-kind scoops... paradise at last. Consider it your fallout shelter from the mayhem up above.

Some new finds:

Calaveras: Mexican Prints for the Day of the Dead

Classic and antique postcard art from the Holiday Most Envied by White People. Printed on heavy, removeable card-stock.

Among the Janeites: A Journey Through the World of Jane Austen Fandom

And you thought Trekkies were obsessive.

The Ordinary Acrobat: A Journey into the Wondrous World of the Circus, Past and Present 

It was the Lautrec-esque cover that caught my eye, but the subject matter couldn't be more sordid and captivating. Check out the NPR review.

Harry Dickson: Les Spectres Bourreaux

Hardcover reissue of the classic pulp magazine. Great practice for French language learners, though the Parisians might mistake you for a gumshoe detective.

Booksmith: A Baedeker

Brookline Booksmith boasts an impressive population of an average of 35 staff. It is a utopia with no political affiliation, religion and a beneficent government by triumvirate of wise elders, one of which operates as acting Matriarch.

Booksmith matriarch Dana

Its high season is the late fall to winter, when the crowds come in droves for the fantastic shopping. A good time to visit would be anytime that they are open, from 7 days a week, Monday - Thursday 8:30am - 10pm, Friday 8:30am - 11pm, Saturday 9am - 11pm, Sunday 9am - 9pm.

Its capital is the stately Books We Love table, located at its Westernmost corridor. Its northern border is the eclectic and funky Card & Gift Room, a sprawling marketplace popular among the young and old.

Explore the vibrant international bazaar at the Card & Gift Room

The Southern border is the Point of Sale Mountain Range, a prominent feature both denizens and visitors can "check out."

Point of Sale Mountain Range

Past this region is the breathtaking New Hardcovers and Fiction wall, a favorite spot of the trendy and intellectual.

Along the Easternmost border of Booksmith is a sweeping theme park for children.

People watch and enjoy an espresso at the delightfully tiny tables

An oft-forgotten yet treasured landscape is the subterranean catacombs of the Used Book Cellar. Built among the ancient ruins of old offices, a video and record store is a twisting labyrinth of half-priced, gently used books with a small staff of well-informed natives that operate on a slightly shifted time zone, buying used books from Wednesday through Saturday 10am - 4pm.

Transport to a landscape of antiquity in the Used Book Cellar

This new edition of the Brookline Booksmith Baedeker is edited by Natasha, originally from the Used Book Cellar but a recent move now allows her to divide her time evenly between her native land and the Travel section, which she now oversees.

Crunchy Leaves, Smooth Books

Autumn time is the happiest time of year for bookstore types. All the best books are coming out, the weather is perfect for warm tea or pumpkin spice lattes while you curl up in a cozy blanket and read all the books, or curl up in a nice scarf and fend off the chubby squirrels preparing for winter in the Common. There are tons of great books the store is jazzed about released this fall: Jumpa Lahiri's Lowland, I've already started tucking into Anya von Bremzen's Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking and the new David Wiesener book Mr. Wuffles are just the tip of the autumnal iceberg.

In addition to all the new fall books, the UBC has cured curated a fine selection of meats books that are perfect for autumn: Ivy League campuses going back to school, spooky New England ghost stories, young couples falling into piles of leaves, the whole gamut of super-satisfying fall time reads! We've got a nice new case at the top of the stairs, for the discerning book lover on the go who might not have the time to get lost in our subterranean bookshelves. The selection changes daily so come quickly and come often! And if there's a special book you love to reread every fall, let me know in the comments!

Being a grownup

This Tuesday I celebrated my 28th birthday. I'm officially a decade into adulthood and therefore a bonafide, card-carrying grownup. I also read tarot cards and do a big spread at the beginning of the calendar year AND birthday year.

 This year, my "concerns" as I spread the cards out were balancing all the crazy projects I want to do (running my own press, translating a book, writing my own novel) with all the normal stuff of grownup life that I still haven't nailed down (exercising, flossing, reading more from my to-read pile). So I spread the cards and all these 4s of things kept coming up. 4 of Pentacles, Swords and Wands. The Emperor, who is #4 in the major arcana. FOURS, man. Clearly the universe was sending me a sign. If you arrange things into four you have a nice little square foundation, and indeed, a proliferation of 4s in a spread suggests establishing a structure, routinizing things, getting organized and stable for things to work going forward.

 Clearly the cards suggest that while I really do want to get a million things done, I need to set up some sort of structure for making that happen. So my resolutions for my 28th year are to start small, and start flossing daily. I'm 2 for 2 on that one (#nailingit) and to read more, some friends of mine are starting up a book club to finally read all those books on our to-read pile that we're embarrassed we haven't read yet. Especially as booksellers and book reviewers, which many of us are. So on the inaugural meeting, to fit my new resolution, I'm really pushing for Zadie Smith's White Teeth.

Bookstore Tourism: Tokyo Edition

Still recovering from massive jet lag accrued over my recent flight over the International Date Line, I was reading Murakami's Sputnik Sweetheart as I tried to lull myself to sleep at something resembling a decent hour. It's still hard to get to bed on time, and harder still to wake up in the morning and feel alert during the day, but since the time change between Brookline and Tokyo is (only) 13 hours, according to Wikipedia I only have 5 more days to recover from the jet lag. I should be right as rain just in time for my birthday! Anyway, back to the Murakami. At the beginning of chapter 6, the narrator says: "The day the letter arrived, I'd gone out to Shinjuku for the first time in quite a while, picked up a couple of new books at the Kinokuniya bookstore, and taken in a Luc Besson movie." While in Tokyo, I stayed in Shinjuku, and visited this very Kinokuniya, with it's staggering 8 stories of books.

There were tons of bookstores in Tokyo, and even a neighborhood of used bookstores near the major universities. The reading culture in Tokyo is alive and well, with many of the passengers on the clean, efficient Tokyo subway lines reading paperback books carefully covered in leather, canvas, fabric and even tidy paper book covers. The displays in many of the stores were gorgeous and vibrant, twisted stacks to the ceilings, beautiful piles wrapped around the bookshelves, and book design is beautiful there, with many of the books in similar trim sizes, with a sewn in bookmark in the popular-sized paperbacks. There's even a magazine devoted to the art of book design and illustration!

Kinokuniya was a little special for me because even though it's technically a chain, the only others I've visited were in Seattle and New York, two cities near and dear to my heart. I bought a copy of Alice in Wonderland in Japanese at the Seattle location, with a cool slipcase, and in New York I bought Finn Family Moomintroll in Japanese complete with illustrations. In Shinjuku, I loaded up on cute magazines with bunnies and stunning Japanese architecture magazines, and even rode the elevator with a real live attendant decked out in lace gloves and hat. I was on the hunt for a particular book and having trouble with the organization at one point (it didn't seem entirely alphabetical, even knowing the Japanese alphabet), and when I asked for help, the very kind and gracious bookseller bowed, ran to the computer, looked at me, excused himself and apologized profusely, dashed past me and returned with a Japanese to English dictionary and pointed at a word. "Not in stock." They have a single word for that! I thanked him, bought my treasures, which the cashier placed elegantly in the bag, taped shut, bowed and thanked me.

All of this was a microcosm of my stay in Japan, orderly, elegant, everyone takes such care with details and politeness I felt so welcome and happy and impressed and overwhelmed and soothed all at the same time I had a hard time leaving. So how about it kids, who's coming with me to set up Booksmith Tokyo?

Book v. Movie GO!

Now that the Ender's Game trailer is around like gangbusters book sales for the sci-fi classic are picking up, and while I'm probably going to see the movie, it rears the ugly head of the age old debate: book? movie? which is better? avoid one and cherish the other? are the genres mutually exclusive or can they coexist in harmony. Given that there have been, in history, at least two examples of really great movie adaptations of books that are equal in awesomeness (IMHO) than I think it can be done, and if an adaptation is poorly done, let's just blame the test market. Or whatever.

So. Books that are just as good as the movies. For me, number 1 forever and always is Room With a View - the Merchant & Ivory is just as good as Forster's classic, I don't care if it's heresy, there I said it.

Furthermore, Cold Comfort Farm. The version with a baby Kate Beckinsale totally captures the spirit, charm and one-liners of Stella Gibbons classic satire, and every time I watch it I want to read the book again, and conversely every time I read the book I want to watch the movie.

There are a couple recent Masterpiece Theatre adaptations that I felt were as good as the books, the latest Jane Eyre with Ruth Wilson and Toby Stephens (I cry at the engagement scene every time I watch it, just as when I read it SNIFF), North and South with Richard Armitage (grrr) and Hardy's Tess with Gemma Arterton is GENIUS casting, because there's something about Arterton's totally sweet and trusting doe-eyed face that reminds you throughout the film, just as Hardy reminds you throughout the novel, that Tess is the sweetest, most innocent milkmaid with the worst luck. Ultimate heart breaker!

How about you? Any adaptations that you enjoy as much as the book? Or possibly MORE than the book? Tell me in the comments!

Fun Finds

The UBC has gotten quite a haul of rad books in this week. Just as I was pricing a few, I noticed these two creepily related covers:

 Another book has a rather dapper author photo, worth the price of the entire book in my humble opinion:

We have a bunch of great exceptions to our no-hardcover rule:

And some neat oldies and goodies that if you haven't read yet you should hurry down and grab now:

Thirty-Two-Hour-Long Read

So the last part, the missing piece as regards getting ready for my trip and books is what to bring with me! I've got a 16 hour flight (both ways) and various train rides during the trip during which I will think to myself "I really should read right now," but be too nervous-excited to do so. As travel lit guru Jodie said after her recent return from a trip, "You always think you'll read more than you actually do." Too true, and I have many trips' experience with which to back this notion up. BUT GUYS THIS TIME I'M REALLY GOING TO READ A LOT.

Because I've found the perfect book.

• It's 3 books in 1, ergo a great length.
• It's Scandinavian (I won't need to read about Japan while I'm there, right?)
• According, again to Jodie, it's a fairy easy read with romance and history (perfect for a vacation, right?)

What could this perfect mystery book be the photo of which you saw as soon as you loaded the blog post? Sigrid Undset's mega-Norwegian-medieval epic Kristin Lavransdatter! 

I don't have the mega cool 3-volume edition Jodie snagged from the Used Book Cellar, but I have the new translation from Penguin all in a tidy volume, so my unbridled optimism tells me that this is the trip that I finally finish this book I've been meaning to read for years. 

As I learned with my last airplane trip in which I started Cloud Atlas, and promptly finished on the T-ride, the trick to reading a lot of a book on a trip is perhaps to start before you go, so you can carry that momentum over lands and oceans. So I've read through ALL my to-read pile and am currently on the last book before Kristin, so I'll have a good head start before I leave and will for surely finish it finally just as I descend back into Logan at the end of the month. Right? 

Twice Sold Tales

Despite the recent downpour, it's been a busy week for the Used Book Cellar, from what all the customers are telling me, everyone's moving, clearing out their stash, giving up on collections or trying to make room for more books. But these people's "life changes" are your scores! We have so many neat treasures, in addition to an exciting sidewalk sale this weekend chock full of half-priced art books, $1 books and other surprises that await your new paycheck. You'll need to load up on cool books if this rain is in it to stay. What will you read?! Here are some suggestions:

Tuck into an old classic from a vintage Modern Library edition with newly mylared dust jackets your welcome, guaranteed there will be neat ephemera from the 50s and 60s in here, I was sure to leave a few pieces! Excellent covers, classic books you've been meaning to read for ages, we've got it all. And there are a few more in our overstock room so keep checking back regularly as we put out fresh ones.

A theology scholar sold off most of his collection so we have a dazzling array of academic and general-interest books on world religions, everything from Evil in Hindu Religions to Catholic catechisms (a must if you're trying to make sense of Dante's Inferno OR Dan Brown's).

Also, a devoted reader of science fiction and fantasy dropped off all kinds of tomes. Everything from neat space operas to the Clan of the Cave Bear series to loads of Neil Gaiman. Come get your fill before some other muggle does!

This rain could go on for days, folks. Or hours, but whatever. Get prepared for an epic flood and load up on books now BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!

Stick To It-iveness

Not to brag but my "to read" pile
 is way more daunting.

I just stubbed my toe. There, do I have your empathy now? Good because what I'm about to confess may make me irredeemable to some. I will not finish reading a book I do not like, and I cheat on books all the time: if I see one that looks good, I grab it. I buy it. I take it home. And I start reading it, regardless of whether I was in the middle of something to which I had already made a promise. I also rarely re-read books and if I stop in the middle of something and I don't pick it back up right away, it kind of...never ever gets finished. It's happened with War and Peace and In Search of Lost Time. There are too many books and especially working in a bookstore, with all the new things ever coming in constantly, there's a need to just move, move, move on books. If it doesn't grab me early, and completely, I give up. Maybe this is a bad character trait. Maybe I'll improve my life if I stick to the books I have and go on a buying/hoarding hiatus. Maybe. But I doubt it. In the meantime I'm satisfied knowing that if the apocalypse happens, my to-read pile will keep me occupied through any kind of mood for quite a while.

So what am I reading now? Well I had been about halfway through The Rainbow by D. H. Lawrence, but I came across this beautiful out of print biography of H. D., one of my favorite poets. Asdfo w uefh wpoi wehf wofns. You lost interest right? And gave up? Been there, buddy.

Stay Sharp in Summer

Summer is coming up. Time to zone out in front of the television, eat a lot of sugary ice cream and forget everything you learned last year.

...OR IS IT?

What if I told you that there was a way to 1) learn new things about math while 2) LAUGHING OUT LOUD. How? You might ask.

Oh, I'll tell you how.

By picking up this rare jewel of a used book recently acquired in our Used Book Cellar, Math Jokes 4 Mathy Folks.

This slim lil volume comes complete with some of these old chestnuts:

Without geometry, life would be pointless.

Q: What do you get when you divide the circumference of a jack-o-lantern by its diameter?
A: Pumpkin Pie.

Q: What is a catenary?
A: A string held by a kitten at each end.

...and SO MAN MORE. Run, don't walk.

Also, if you like used books, reading in the summer and not walking down the stairs your friendly, helpful and eager used books staff have curated a brilliant collection of books perfect for summertime reading that are now in a handsome bookcase at the top of the stairs, next to the newspapers. Come check it out!

Big Books, Small Presses

As an avid reader and lover of all things books, I get really excited by small scrappy upstart presses that publish really bold, beautiful books that are a little bit grainier, hard-edged, strange or literally foreign for the big guys to pay much attention to. Small presses print translations you can't find anywhere else, raw, gutsy memoirs, poetry that burns bright with cleverness and an experimental air. They're small enough to take risks on books they believe in and while I LOVE me some books that the big guys print, I think a book club dedicated to small presses would A) give some recognition to books without big promotional budgets that might get overlooked, and B) encourage all you smarty Booksmith shoppers to go to a book club where it isn't necessarily a novel we read, but maybe a collection of poetry, or a book of literary non-fiction. I'm not a  poet but sometimes Wave Books prints a book of poetry so beautiful I have to read it and when I do I want to talk about it because I DON'T UNDERSTAND POETRY BUT I THINK I LIKE IT A LOT ANYWAY. What does this meeeean? Let's talk about it together!

If the prospect of the Small Press Book Club appeals to you, drop me an e-mail and I'll contact you before September when we'll (hopefully) start to meet. Meetings would be once a month for about an hour, and there would be SNACKS. E-mail me if you're interested! The more people I know are interested the more likely this will work out. And that means MORE snacks to you, the consumer. E-mail me at natasha -at- brooklinebooksmith -dot- com.

Bruins Booksmith!

Chilling my my gnomies

While doing research for this blog post I discovered a list of the Bruins favorite books compiled by the Mass State Library system to encourage kids to read more.

Milan Lucic's fave? Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss. Johnny Boychuk recommended Old Yeller (in case breaking Penguin hearts isn't enough). Tyler Seguin recommended The Alchemist.

But it's an old list, and lacking in some important players. Would Tuukka like the Moomins? Maybe Horton digs Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club, and maybe Chara keeps Roald Dahl's BFG on his nightstand.

Upstairs we have a sports section with some cool histories of hockey and the Bruins in particular, and if you want suggestions for Finnish literature I got that in spades. More bear related books are here.

Either way, tonight's a big night for our ice skating bears so here are my recommendations for the team:

• Getting Things Done by David Allen
• Winning by Jack Welch
• The Success Principles by Jack Canfield

GO BRUINS!

1,000 Drunken Bunny Rabbits

The Used Book Cellar just recently acquired the Popol Vuh - the ancient book of Mayan origins. In it, you get to learn about Centzon Totochtin, the god of wine and revelry whose physical form takes the shape of 1,000 drunken bunny rabbits! Sunday school would have been so much cooler if we got to learn about him.

And just like Centzon Totochtin, we have thousands of awesome things in the UBC this week:

• Tons and TONS and TOOONS of science and math books acquired only yesterday. Get here fast to scope 'em out but do NOT drink and derive. 

• Another person's move is your goldmine, a really nice fella sold off so many super sweet comics (including Promethea by Alan Moore one of my alltime favorites) so come get at 'em before the weekend crowds hit!

• Randomly we seem to have acquired a really good selection of drama recently. One actor was moving and sold off a bunch of how-to books, and quite a few students have brought in some really great plays in excellent condition. 

We're looking sharp and stocked these days, so beat the gross humidity and ridiculously hot weather and come see us! We're subterranean (like ninja turtles), and we have air conditioning! Also, chairs! You'll love it!

Dude Food Books

Anthony Bourdain has started his own publishing imprint at Ecco, picking a few books a season by some pretty cutting edge (and predictably macho) dude food books. One of them that I'm particularly excited about is Daniel Vaughn’s Prophets of Smoked Meat, which is a full-color photo-rich book that is basically a travel guide to all the best barbecue in Texas. Also, that is a great title. And what better sort of book to give this time of year with graduations and Father's Day abounding, dads and grads alike need 1) books on how to feed the people that like them and 2) summer is around the corner and we have a duty, as friends of people with spatulas, grills or plane tickets to Texas, to perpetuate tasty meat consumption. Also, Franklin Barbecue forever.

Other books to try might be:

 Grilling Vegan Style by Jon Schlimm. Everyone loves a versatile chef!

Beer Lovers New England by Norman Miller. Think local with your gustatory travel ideas. And also think about what hops pair best with grilled meats.

Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare. No recipes here, but plenty of meaty humor.

And if you need more gifty ideas for dads or grads, "pork loin is my jam," says Jes of the Card and Gift Room when asked what meat is best. Or you could just check out our epic table of gifts and books at the front register, or gift-buyer Kerri's amazing display in the Card and Gift room for ideas!

Super Cheesy Love Story

Maybe it's the advent of spring, maybe it's string of boring non-fiction I've just plowed through but for some reason I got it in my head last week that I really wanted to read an engrossing novel that is just a basic love story. Something cheesy. Something simple. But something well-written. It's a hard balance to strike but here are some recommendations if you're in the mood for love, too:

Old Favorites

A Room With a View. Genteel girl, social outcast boy. Will they, won't they, love triangle, Italy. This book has it all!

The Sky is Everywhere. A heartbreaker of a novel where a girl's sister dies and in the wake while dealing with the grief, the protagonist deals with the seemingly ill-timed first blushes of love.

The Marriage Plot. A love triangle set in the 1980s, with international travel, being in love with someone with bipolar disorder, and unrequited pining. All the good stuff with beautiful writing and super-real characters as only Eugenides can pull off.

And the pile of To-Reads on my nightstand after all my searching:

Delicacy. A French love story in which a young widow finds an unlikely mate in a geeky guy at work.

The Lover. The modernist novella in which a young French teen in Indochina has a saucy affair with a Chinese man.

Justine. Basically a book set in bedrooms. Sold.