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September 25, 2006
“The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop” by Lewis Buzbee
This charmingly honest memoir is a garden of personal joy and celebration where a book geek’s sensibilities and appreciation for the history of books and bookstores blossom in full color. Whether he’s describing acquaintances’ formative reading lists or historical watersheds in printing from Gutenberg to electronic print on demand, Busbee’s passion is warm and infectious.
Buzbee begins his account surveying the interior landscape of book lust and the almost symbiotic relationship between bookstores and buyers. He meanders through his early years as a store clerk at Upstart Crow and Printer’s Inc., two northern California bookstores, before delving into the histories of book making and book distribution. His account of the evolution of bookstores is fascinating, and he ties in historical relationships between various social institutions and the book trade, such as the medieval appearance of the university in Europe, Arabic culture and book copyists. He’s also up to tackling issues such as censorship, reading surveillance coupled to sections of the Patriot Act, and the pros and cons of the proliferation of online bookstores.
Dispersed throughout are engaging anecdotes and winsome facts: For example, Buzbee reminds us that from the 15th to the 18th centuries the normal stacking of books changed from vertical to horizontal. The third series of numbers in an ISBN designates a publisher’s specific listed title. Traveling booksellers sold 90% percent of books in the
U.S. in the 19th century. And the first printed copy of James Joyce’s Ulysses appeared on Joyce’s fortieth birthday, as promised, with paper wrappers the color of the Greek flag.
Buzbee paints delightful portraits of bookstores, celebrated and those less so. The storied Shakespeare and Co. in Paris under the guidance of Sylvia Beach, Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s renown City Lights Bookstore, and Librarie 1789, a Parisian shop specializing in experimental, contemporary writers all come alive with Buzbee’s brush. He also highlights such stores as Grolier Poetry Book Ship, the oldest all-poetry bookshop in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the Red Balloon Bookshop in St. Paul, Minnesota, and a combination used bookstore and tattoo parlor in Garberville, California. Absent, however, are a host of college town bookstores between the coasts that could rightly have made the list, landmark bookshops such as Prairie Lights Bookstore in Iowa City, Iowa or Shaman Drum Bookstore in Ann Arbor.
Reading shuttles us to appointed worlds of our own choosing, enticing worlds seemingly within our grasp. Buzbee rightly adduces that our initial connection to books and reading is visceral. Books allow us to experience our interior and outer worlds more deeply. And bookstores allow us, more than any other place perhaps, a space “to be alone among others.” They satisfy not only the singular obsession to search and discover on our own, but to do so in the company of other seekers, a passion that doesn’t seem to diminish over time. This book is filled with such subtle epiphanies.
ISBN: 1555974503
Renoir, reference
Posted by jnardine at 09:21 AM | Comments (0)
September 18, 2006
"How Opal Metha Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life" by Kaavya Viswanathan
When I saw this on the shelf, I couldn't resist. This is that book written by a Harvard sophomore that was splashed all over the New York Times a while back, not because of its quality but because she got a huge advance on the publication and then was busted for plagiarising most of the contents.
As a chick lit piece, it's pretty good. Anyone who has seen the movie "Mean Girls" will recognize a lot of the plot. Opal is not straight off the boat from Africa, as in the film. Instead she's lived her entire life executing a plan designed to get her into Harvard. She's stunned when she's turned down for early admissions when she can't answer the question, "what do you do for fun?" The rest of the book chronicles her attempts to transform from studious unknown to glamorous and popular wild child. Overall, it's a fun read. Too bad it's also basically stolen goods.
ISBN: 0316059889
Jennifer, reference
Posted by jnardine at 08:15 AM | Comments (0)
September 08, 2006
"Definitely Dead" by Charlain Harris
Harris' 6th book in this series featuring Sookie Stackhouse, barmaid extraordinaire, is just as satisfying as its predecessors. If you've never read any of this series, I would highly recommend starting at the beginning with "Dead Until Dark." You can read this book as a stand-alone and still find it a good read, but the story is much richer and more amusing if you have all of the background from the previous books.
In this "episode" Sookie, a telepath, gets involved in a plot to throw over the vampire queen of Louisiana, starts dating the were-tiger Quinn, and manages to navigate kidnap plots, murder attempts and fancy dress balls with her usual mixture of down-home common sense, humor and style.
This series is a great read. It's definitely not your usual vampire novel; more a mix of mystery, romance and comedy that keeps you turning the pages. It's a great change of pace from academic or business reading - just plain fun.
ISBN: 0441014003
Jennifer, reference
Posted by jnardine at 01:15 PM | Comments (0)
September 05, 2006
"Search Engine Visibility" by Shari Thurow
Admit it, by now you've Googled yourself (If you haven't, go to Google and run a search on your name. I'll wait.). It's interesting to see how the world sees us: is the top result you? Are you even on the first page?
Do you want to be? Sheri Thurow is a search engine marketer, and she can help. Her book Search Engine Visibility is straight-forward, crisp, and practical. In it, she provides enough basic theory for context, so one need never ask 'why'. From her five rules of web design to her search engine and directory submission checklists, her advice is clear and easy to follow. Thurow covers improving site visibility at two points: building new pages, and improving existant ones. Along the way she provides examples from her own portfolio as illustrations, and clear explanation of both the techniques to use and the reasons behind them. Her list of website resources is also very nice.
To sum up, the key to a good search engine raking is building a good website. Design with the user in mind, providing quality content and simple navigation, and the spiders will reward you. As Thurow says, "building a site for your target audience and following search engine best practices is one of the most cost-effective components of a search engine marketing campaign".
ISBN: 0735712565
Everett, reference
Posted by jnardine at 09:20 AM | Comments (0)