Advice for the Travel Writer

A few weeks ago while teaching a travel writing seminar, I had students place themselves on a map on the wall. Where were they from? Where had they been? Soon the map was covered with post-its. Between the eight of us, we had covered the continents, from Spain to New Zealand. While we marveled at our mobility, we also had to face a serious question. If the world is this connected, what is the place and purpose of travel writing, a genre that developed with the discovery of the world? Explorers used to write home, describing the new lands they saw. Today, if a reader can type Tahiti, they can see paradise.

Simon Garfield's new book On the Map opens with a spread Facebook's map of connectivity. Someone put in all the coordinates of Facebook users, and out of the void a map arose, formed through millions of threaded connections. Despite the fact that we can travel the world on our iPad, the genre of travel writing persists. People still feel compelled to write what they saw, and I can vouch for the fact that there are readers out there, because I talk to them every day, as they browse our Destination Literature shelves.

So travel writers: take heart. We've got books to guide you through your process. Lonely Planet has just released the newly updated Guide to Travel Writing. From craft to query, travel writer Don George provides expert advice to help you write, sell and publish your tales of adventure. While the audience, focus, and form of the genre might be in continual flux, the folks at Matador Travel have done their best to map out the place it still holds for contemporary readers and to give you some ideas for how to stay up-to-date with the newest innovations. Click here to read the article on their blog.  And finally, to sample some of the current travel writing published, pick up Travelers Tales new anthologyThe Best Women's Travel Writing 2013. And look for The Best American Travel Writing 2013, due out in October.

Through these books and my own travels I am convinced that the appeal of adventure persists. No matter how much of the world is known there are still the infinite revelations of the self that occur during each encounter with a new land. And so we keep reading.

Customer Assistance: A Poem

(written for last week's Booksmith Staff Talent Show)

Our schedule has thirty names upon it.

The regulars may know us all by face.

But here's a bit of customer assistance

in telling who is who around the place.

Well, Dana runs the show; she's there surveying

the details from her elevated perch.

And Lisa's our Premier of Product Placement,

the maven of the movement of the merch.

There's Peter wading through receipts and errors.

He brings us bags of bagels anyway.

The galleys in our cubbies come from Alie.

We swear we'll get through all of them someday.

When something breaks, it's time to call on Bruno.

His day is full, for furniture is fickle.

Call Daniel for a detailed book suggestion,

a thorough search, or yummy homemade pickle.

The Shire's tallest honorary hobbit

is Erik, always noting and observing.

And Jamie plans events and tweets and tumbles.

Her skills at multi-tasking are unnerving.

In rain or shine, there's Jon receiving boxes

of nearly every book that's introduced.

And Jodie travels 'round the lonely planet

with Waldo and with expertise in Proust.

And holy crime in Italy, our Kobos
would languish if we lacked the help of Kat.
And Katie runs the blog, designs our flyers,
and works on many stuffs on top of that.
When music decades-old is on the speakers,
then Liz is here, and Waltham feels her lack.
There's Lydia; she's dreaming of a kitty
and shelving with a zipper down her back.
The chocolate and the books from smaller presses
and lots of music knowledge come from Mark.
Paul quotes his witty children and informs them
of how to read a C.S. Lewis arc.
At closing or when helping with receiving,
Ric's known for being chill and easy-going.
And likewise, Russ, with saintly stores of patience
keeps often-very-special orders flowing.
There's literary Shuchi, known for Grub Street
and elephants, which populate her book.
And hey, I'll take some pity on the new guy,
so Tom, this time, at least, you're off the hook.

Now, Amy loves YA, and blogs, and magic
and drawing awesome figures out of sticks.
And biased though I am, I think our section's
the best within this mortar and these bricks.
Clarissa joined us recently and added
her energy and voice into the mix.

The UBC is quietly kept humming
by Carl in his uniform of plaid.
Natasha's love of fairy tales is deathless,
so check her chapbooks out - they're crazy rad.

The C and G has windups, earrings, candles
and stuff of every nature that appeals.
It's Kerri who decides on every item.
She gets it right, and does it all in heels!
And Bacon sizzles, belting '80s music.
Her workload gives us all the heebie-jeebies.
A stranger in a wig? Well, that, most likely,
is Julia, creator of the chibis.
There's no one aging quickly at the Booksmith.
We're all kept young by sweet and youthful Tate.
And Joe's returned to find a store of changes
and help a most creative team create.

Well, that's the team in-store. As you can witness,
the group is vibrant, active, and alive.
So how come I don't hear a page of "got it"
for customer assistance to Reg 5?

PSA: Linda Ronstadt Edition

Mark just popped in to tell me that Simple Dreams by Linda Ronstadt is our top seller this week, which may blow your minds as the book isn't even out yet.  We've been taking preorders all week, filling out author signing request forms and taking people's addresses.  We've fielded calls, processed Internet orders, all of that good stuff so that people everywhere can get signed copies or tickets to her event.  Everyone on staff under the age of 40 has seen the video below and should know how to pronounce Tucson (TOO-sahn) so I know we're ready.

I'll stop dancing and tell you the point of this post: we can get books signed for you.  When you see an author on our event calendar and can't make the event, pre-order it by phone, Internet, or in person and we can get it signed for you.  Are you in California? No problem.  We'll ship it.  Are you in Turkey?  No problem.  We'll ship it.  Let us know and we'll get it done, however many copies you want.

Back to School

The summer is winding to an end, and while there's still time to get a last trip or two in before schools start up, if you're a teacher, it may be time to start thinking about getting back behind classroom walls. Or, at least, to start planning how you are going to decorate those walls. At Booksmith we've got wall maps to illustrate your lessons, help your students see the world from a different perspective, or simply to let you daydream about new destinations.

The What's Up South? World Upside Down Map will have your students asking questions like never before. Why do we think North is Up? Who decides how we view ourselves in relation to the rest of the world?

While the Peters Projection maintains the traditional compass points, it strives to distribute area in a more accurate way. The world is round, so there is no way to portray it in a perfect projection. However, this map can get students asking more questions relating to distribution of power. Why does Africa appear smaller than the U.S. on a traditional map?

And for elementary teachers, National Geographic has a series of Kids Education maps, including the U.S., World Political, and World Physical. Lamination helps protect from sticky fingers and tears, and the large size, with each country or state delineated by a different color, turns a third grade geography lesson into a visual treat.

Why the history section was lined with strollers

No, the kids' section hasn't completely taken over the store. It just seemed that way this Saturday, when a line of strollers stretched halfway down Aisle 3. Twenty, count 'em, twenty people gathered at 10:30, all to hear The Circus Ship, Mustache Baby, and Llama Llama and the Bully Goat read in Clarissa's dulcet tones.

Our recently revived Children's Storytime is different every time, but it's growing! We've had small crowds and large crowds like yesterday, very young crowds and savvier crowds of kindergarteners and first graders. The whole thing is super-informal; though we pick out the books ahead of time, we let the audience influence our delivery. (If you hear us call it a "story hour," don't take that second word literally.) Kids of all ages are welcome, babies and toddlers included, as long as their grownups are on hand. We read new books; we read favorites; we read good stuff, we think.

To reiterate the vital stats, Children's Storytime takes place at 10:30 on the third Saturday and last Sunday of every month; upcoming dates include this Sunday, 8/25; Saturday, 9/21; and Sunday, 9/29.  It takes place right in our kids' section; you'll know it's happening if we've dragged out the giant striped rug (thanks to many booksellers for their help schlepping that thing). No need to sign up; just show up!

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!

Seventy-Seven Books

I have seventy-seven books on or near my desk right now, mostly publisher galleys.  Seventeen are for upcoming events, two are dictionaries, three are YA novels, four are graphic novels, one is highly recommended by another bookseller, and I've been highly recommending at least eight of the titles to other booksellers. I've read at least fifteen of them, I'm very earnestly planning to read twenty-three of them, I'm tepid about six, and I should probably take about fifteen of them home already. I can tell you why I chose each one, whether it be because of the blurb, the description, the author, an upcoming author event, or because I liked the cover.

I might be on the extreme end of book hoarding, but I swear I need them to do my job. I'm not alone--it seems like every bookseller has loads of books spirited away and a towering pile of galleys that could easily be used to make a book fort while protectively guarding an advance reader's copy they can't talk about yet because the release date is far away (in my case, Paul Harding's Enon, 27 days til pub date, it is amazing and I really want to talk about it).  I work at Brookline Booksmith.  This is what I do.

Do us Brookline Booksmith book hoarders a favor. Come on in, ask us about our favorite books, let us talk about the latest book that we marveled over and can't stop gushing about. Get a recommendation for a book you might not have normally stumbled upon yourself, fall in love with it and tell us about it so we can continue to rationalize the piles, shelves, and heaps of books we consume on a regular basis so we can give quality book advice.