Booksellers are like book hunters; they search for the right book for the right reader at the right time. This is also the task of the librarian as posed by Ranganathan and of the information services provider in these digital days. But which 750 books are just right to have on the shelves of Roseledge Books? This is my ongoing puzzle and joy.
I no more than landed in Minnesota than I spotted two probable must-haves “of Maine” for RB next summer. The first is Ed Ureneck’s Cabin: Two Brothers, a Dream, and Five Acres in Maine which is not yet out in paperback, is set in interior — rather than coastal — Maine, and uses the mid-western word, cabin, rather than the coastal terms, cottage or camp, to describe one’s dwelling, but which apparently describes the back-to-the-land dream of many as did Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance or John Casey’s Spartina, is set in Maine and is written by a former Portland newspaper editor who knows Maine. Tricky, these book-choosing decisions.
This view has changed. Walk to Roseledge Books next summer and figure out how.
The second must-have is The Plants of Acadia National Park compiled by four field botanists, “serious scientists” in reviewer Susan Hand Shetterly’s words (in Down East, October 2011), who offer a treasure of photographs, identification keys, historical and current collecting methods and suggestions for further reading to enjoy during a long winter’s night anywhere or a long summer’s day on the lighthouse lawn. Armed with some background, local readers (you) can explore local areas and begin an ever-growing list of local wildflower (or other plant) finds with annotations which will make the book a Tenants Harbor (or other area) treasure. Think of the hikes, kayak pauses, bike rides, and walks of fun and wonder. This makes it an activity book, like using Arnold Skolnick’s Paintings of Maine to identify which painters or paintings are near, then dear. After it all, RB ends us in the midst of many wildflowers and much art, and with you all, great
readers.
And then there is my latest thriller read, David Baldacci’s The Sixth Man, which, on page 8, has the main characters landing at the jetport in Portland, Maine. Will the good times never end?
More about book hunters next post. Charlie says I should keep these short, never easy for a born talker.
Colleen,
At one point you asked if Ralph could give comment on Pe
ter Spiegelman’s new book (he was reading it at the time).
The comment he wrote in his books list is,”good but complex.”
I didn’t like it much – nothing like his two other books that
I read; Wall Street, brothers, etc.
I think I told you but when Mary Pollard was on a group trip
to Oregon, she ran into some oother people who know you.
Anyway, Mary really enjoyed seeing you last year and would
like to get together this year, if possible.
We’ll be coming the early part of May. Ralph, Mary, and Jack
are planing a sibling get together May 5 and 6. Ralph and I will come a bit earlier and Ralph and Vince Solum go on their
annual trek; this time, not too far from Minneapolis.
Looking forward to checking out the new hot spots in your area.
Are you going to be around the early part of May?
Charyl
Go Jets!