It’s really raining at the moment. (See webcam.) Cozy indoors with no leaks, a change from years past. Millie and I will spend the afternoon artfully arranging books for your appreciation, but you have to come to fully appreciate the attraction of a good cover, well placed among other “like” books. But why are they “like” and are the covers good for you? Those are the questions and that is the fun.
Joe Queenan argues for the importance of a book’s cover in choosing what to read, but I can’t remember whether our reasons for display support his reasons for choosing. Cover reactions may be too personal to generalize. Only when you get here and look or don’t look at a title will we know if we hit it. A bookseller’s life is never humdrum.
Fig. #86. Morning sun is the best for coffee on the porch and to remind walkers that exercised bodies need exercised minds. Roseledge Books: gym for the mind, open from 2-6 p.m.
A friend is organizing a conference for caregivers in danger of burning out, which probably covers all caregivers. Surely a roster of Roseledge Books that might “take them away” from whatever is the burden of the moment is just the thing. I’ve been thinking about categories. How about real-life adventures? Or multigenerational sagas? Or fat biographies with lots of detail? Or books about other times and/or places? Your suggestions?
Categories need examples. Would you include and where would you put the following?
David Michaelis’ N.C. Wyeth (local tie)
Roy Hoxham’s The Great Hedge of India (not even a remote local tie, but great read)
Louise Erdrich’s Plague of Doves ( strong, very indirect local tie)
Douglas Brinkley’s Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America (maybe local tie)
Cokie Roberts’ Founding Mothers (local tie)
Barbara Kingsolver and family’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (local tie in spirit of Produce Lady)
Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander (no tie, but fat and first of series)
Suggestions welcome, but hurry.
So far the book about books that mattered to Oscar Wilde has less pith than David Brooks’ column about books that mattered to Christopher Hitchens, but the comparison may be unfair as both DB and CH are still alive. The real point of all of this may be that I have neglected Oscar for a second adventure with Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander. (Thomas Wright’s Built of Books; Stieg Larsson’s Girl Who Walked Through Fire) I loved it and hate to make you envious, but I have a paperback copy of the third book which a friend brought from Switzerland. It may be a British publication, but it is translated and I can’t remember the title which may be different from the U.S. hardcover. Oscar may have to wait a little longer.