Shakespeare & Co. Booksellers

2012-02-01T13:46:00.000-05:00

Model No. P114S

Obviously, there's loads of function built into the mechanical scale with handle. But when I move it around the store? I only pretend it's the briefcase I carry to my job at the Office of Weights and Measures.

Don't even pretend it's just me.

Pictured: The Pelouze® P114S 250 lb. / 114 Kg Mechanical Shipping Scale

Semester Rush

2012-01-31T17:41:00.000-05:00

Students! We've got things more than under control, we've got them well in hand. Come visit!

The New York Journalism of Djuna Barnes, 1913–1919

2012-01-26T14:28:00.000-05:00

January 20 - August 19, 2012

Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art

Herstory Gallery, 4th Floor
Brooklyn Museum

Newspaper Fiction: The New York Journalism of Djuna Barnes, 1913–1919 is an exploration of the early journalistic career of American writer and women’s rights advocate Djuna Barnes. Though best known for her modernist novels and plays, including Nightwood (1936) and The Antiphon (1958), Barnes spent the period between 1913 and her departure for Europe in 1921 living in New York’s Greenwich Village and working as a writer and illustrator for publications including the Brooklyn Daily Eagle and Vanity Fair.

For more information, click here.

Left: "How it Feels to Be Forcibly Fed," New York World Magazine, September 6, 1914. Djuna Barnes Papers, Special Collections, University of Maryland Libraries.

Blacksad

2012-01-23T09:20:00.048-05:00

Anthropomorphic animal noir? Trust me, read this now.

This handsome volume collects three stories of private detective John Blacksad. The first, "Somewhere Within the Shadows" finds him investigating the murder of an old flame. The second, "Arctic Nation," is an exploration of racism and corruption. "Red Soul" is pure Red Scare. And it's all tight, boilerplate noir, wrenching itself from panel to panel in a dreamy, watercolor city.

Dark Horse has a preview available here but really, you need to settle into these stories, hold the book in your hand and appreciate its tremendous artwork from up close. The creators have rightfully won loads of acclaim, from three Eisner nominations to the Angoulême Prize for Artwork. May their fantastic successes continue because their fourth story "The Hell, the Silence" needs to be translated and printed stateside, stat.

Heed the signpost.

2012-01-17T12:34:00.000-05:00

This is the textbook return policy for the Brooklyn store. Print it out, sleep with it under your pillow.

Conan the Cimmerian

2012-01-10T10:37:00.000-05:00

Cover of Weird Tales (May 1934)

"I have known many gods. He who denies them is as blind as he who trusts them too deeply. I seek not beyond death. It may be the blackness averred by the Nemedian skeptics, or Crom's realm of ice and cloud, or the snowy plains and vaulted halls of the Nordheimer's Valhalla. I know not, nor do I care. Let me live deep while I live; let me know the rich juices of red meat and stinging wine on my palate, the hot embrace of white arms, the mad exultation of battle when the blue blades flame and crimson, and I am content. Let teachers and priests and philosophers brood over questions of reality and illusion. I know this: if life is illusion, then I am no less an illusion, and being thus, the illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and am content."

"Queen of the Black Coast," Robert E. Howard

Literary Love Connections

2012-01-09T11:47:00.001-05:00

One of my favorite things a bookstore has ever done is Word's personals bulletin board. It's a great bookstore and this was a clever, kind idea. From time to time, I wonder how things work out for the people who use it and whether they also cross-post on Missed Connections. To that end, I have collected a handful of recent bookish posts, to encourage love between readers. Are any of these you?

Browing in the Bookstore on Bleeker - m4m - 46 (Inwood / Wash Hts)
Date: 2012-01-08, 11:49PM EST
I was browsing at Book and Book on Friday night, at the front of the store, and looked up because I felt myself in someone's glance. You were shorter than me, sharply dressed. I was wearing a long raincoat over a jacket and bow tie. I'm out of practice flirting, but thought about you since, though the encounter was brief. Drop a line if you see this, and tell me one more thing about what I was wearing, and something about what you were wearing, so I'll know it was you.

Kafka on the L Train - w4m - 25 (Heading to Williamsburg)
Date: 2012-01-06, 12:01AM EST
You had blonde hair and wore a knit hat with glasses. I had a huge knitted scarf. We chatted a bit about my book of Kafka's short stories and I made fun of your giant 15lb. weight. When we said adieu at Bedford, you gave me a semi-awkward hi-five. I thought you were adorable. Hope to run into you again on the L train :)

6pm-ish G train, cute Paul Auster-reading guy - w4m (G train, Hoyt - Clinton)
Date: 2012-01-04, 6:50PM EST
Never tried missed connections, but I regret not starting a conversation on the train--you (m) :tall, brown eyes and hair, reading Paul Auster but facing me (f): medium-height, long auburn hair, hazel eyes, red scarf and huge black mittens. A guy reading Auster has to be interesting. Which book was it? And to confirm that it's you, what make and color bag were you carrying?

Reading Resolution

2012-01-02T12:45:00.005-05:00

2012 is the year of Our Mutual Friend.

I laid Dickens aside for years after Hard Times. Our Mutual Friend has been calling out to me about as long. References to it are tucked away everywhere: books I read, television I watch. Time to take it down from the shelf and keep a promise to myself.

A formidable runner-up was Don Quixote, waiting in the wings forever. However, I'm still not ready to accept Cervantes into my life. Another year of living, first? That window is just not open yet.

What are your books? Interested to see what other people have on their docket? Use the tag #resoLITions, courtesy of Pantheon Books. Then, come into any of our stores and take a look around for your year's assignment.

Jude the Obscure, Thomas Hardy

2011-12-30T10:23:00.000-05:00

"Jude went out, and, feeling more than ever his existence to be an undemanded one, he lay down upon his back on a heap of litter near the pig-sty. The fog had by this time become more translucent, and the position of the sun could be seen through it. He pulled his straw hat over his face, and peered through the interstices of the plaiting at the white brightness, vaguely reflecting. Growing up brought responsibilities, he found. Events did not rhyme quite as he had thought. Nature's logic was too horrid for him to care for. That mercy towards one set of creatures was cruelty towards another sickened his sense of harmony. As you got older, and felt yourself to be at the centre of your time, and not at a point in its circumference, as you had felt when you were little, you were seized with a sort of shuddering, he perceived. All around you there seemed to be something glaring, garish, rattling, and the noises and glares hit upon the little cell called your life, and shook it, and warped it."

Books I Read That I Love (2011)

2011-12-19T09:00:00.011-05:00

All comics reading was omitted. Because otherwise this post would be a block of The Invisibles, The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec and The Unwritten. 2011 was a banner year! It's not even worth talking about the one book I hated but saw grimly to its end. I'll never tell.

What did you read?

The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories, Volume I

2011-12-14T09:00:00.007-05:00

Okay, I was very, very excited for this. hitRECord is a collaborative production company fronted by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Picture a community of artists submitting pictures or words or anything and then adding to each others' contributions, remixing and building up, up, up toward the sky. Conceptually, it is basically unbridled enthusiasm married to a serious work ethic.

First, I really love that there is a supportive, inclusive community of people working together to make art. Open-source art, yes. Second, I love that everybody gets paid. Profits are split 50-50 between contributors and hitRECord. Third, the role of curator-director that is filled by Gordon-Levitt is a huge part of what I think makes it successful. The encouragement! He's extremely, "Go team!" I like to think of it as a collective of talented snails that have been coaxed out of their hiding shells to comic jam. There's just a generosity of spirit here that is important. And contagious.

It's a beautiful, hand-sized treasure. Because that is what collaboration looks like! My favorites in this collection are flickering stars in old pickling jars (pictured below), the winter owls keeping trees warm and the very last one, which is especially tiny and tender. The smallest story! It makes an excellent present and an even better call to arms. Join the club! After all, it's part of a three-book series, so there are at least two more volumes to work on/look forward to. Let's get to it.

A controversy of commentary.

2011-12-12T15:45:00.000-05:00

DIESEL via Shelf Awareness

What's the unit of measure for internet commentary again? A controversy?

There's been one over Amazon and its Price Check program. The outrage sustained itself through all of last week. Online, that's basically a year. Every publisher and bookstore spoke out against it, in support of small business: ABA CEO Oren Teicher's open letter is a concise example. While books were excluded from the promotion, the conceit of the app (to encourage the use of physical stores as showrooms) hit a raw nerve for those in the book business. Amazon's mere existence has already created a growing population of customer who feel no compunction over using stores and staff for recommendations and research only to leave and buy online. Amazon's Price Check is an attempt to further normalize that bad behavior. What do you think?

You're Welcome

2011-12-06T12:39:00.000-05:00

Whistling On My Mind via Neatorama

Holiday Recommendations

2011-12-05T16:26:00.000-05:00

First of the season!

A customer wanted starter O'Hara, to which I said "This!" Then, they asked if it would make an excellent gift. I vehemently said, "Yes!" and likely scared them. (Natalie, if you're reading this: I didn't mean to box your hat off in excitement.) Still! If somebody got this book for me, I would be most pleased with our acquaintance.

Do you need recommendations? There's also free giftwrap! We're helpful year-round but try to come even more in handy this month. Come in!

Literary Gifts

2011-11-28T16:01:00.001-05:00

Shakespearean Insults Mug

With the exception of the weather, it's getting to be that time of the year. Just store-keeping today, but we'll be putting together our holiday window tomorrow. Come in and browse for books for yourself, your loved ones! We walk and talk, make thoughtful recommendations! Like, for instance: to go with your Twelve Plays by Shakespeare, I'd suggest visiting Boing Boing to pair it with a Shakespearean Insults Mug. It includes such gems as "clod of wayward marl" and "veriest varlet that ever chewed with a tooth" and is in keeping with the finest spirit of the holidays.

Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami

2011-11-25T11:05:00.009-05:00

First Edition (Japanese): Wikipedia

I had no idea what Kafka on the Shore was about when I decided to start it, neglecting to read even the back of the book. And I believe entering into this story with as little background as possible is ideal. It allows you to be receptive and make your own discoveries as the book develops. And it is the book that has won me over to Murakami.

Ostensibly, it's about people standing apart from society, traveling towards one another. They alternate chapters on a measured drift together. And the fantastical elements of the world they inhabit are possessed of a naturalness, the feeling that they emanate from the story itself. Talking cats, entrance stones, magical gateways: for the reader, none of these images are obtrusive or extraneous. They are symbols that amass to add to a total meaning.

And I love these characters. Their story is told in a manner that acknowledges the story of any story, the story of any life, the story of time and the world. Did I exceed my 'story' quota? No matter. Loneliness, purity, dreams, music, imperfection, beauty, silence. I am forever happy to have read this.

The Algonquin Cat

2011-11-23T12:15:00.000-05:00

The Algonquin Hotel, famously known for hosting literary and theatrical notables, has a tradition of keeping a cat that has "run of the house." Myself, I have spied Matilda sitting quietly on a luggage trolley. Possibly in deference to the DOH, the Algonquin Cat has been placed on a leash. At least, it's satin! Still, the Post is inconsolable. Cat fancier? You can contact Matilda here to express concern and/or voice your support.

‘Meow’trage at Algonquin, NY Post

Money

2011-11-21T12:58:00.001-05:00

xkcd

A chart of (almost) all of it, where it is, and what it can do.

"Death isn't cruel – merely terribly, terribly good at his job."

2011-11-17T09:00:00.033-05:00

Credit: Uploaded to Flickr by The Health Hotel

The Guardian reports that Sir Terry Pratchett "has received consent forms requesting assisted suicide but has not yet signed them." He was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in late 2007 and among other great works, is creator of the fantastic Discworld Series. He has said of his decision that he does not "believe in a duty to suffer the worst ravages of terminal illness" and hopes to be "helped across the step" when the time comes.

Source: Terry Pratchett starts process to take his own life, The Guardian

Kafka on the Shore

2011-11-14T12:10:00.001-05:00

"Like I said, it's because all the performances are imperfect. A dense, artistic kind of imperfection stimulates your consciousness, keeps you alert. If I listen to some utterly perfect performance of an utterly perfect piece while I'm driving, I might want to close my eyes and die right then and there. But listening to the D major, I can feel the limits of what humans are capable of - that a certain type of perfection can only be realized through a limitless accumulation of the imperfect. And personally, I find that encouraging."

Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami

A third of the way in. Expect a full report by week's end.

The Books They Gave Me

2011-11-10T21:19:00.000-05:00

Because this is what Tumblr is for:

Direct all submissions to thebookstheygaveme@gmail.com.

The Green Fairy

2011-11-07T14:47:00.002-05:00

The Absinthe Drinker, Pablo Picasso

Absinthe and Other Liquors of Fin de Siècle Paris:
Lecture and Tasting
Date: Saturday, November 12th
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $10
Presented by Morbid Anatomy

November 12th approaches! Get thee to the Observatory for "an exploration of the exotic and often diabolic liquids of France’s antiquity." Learn about absinthe, green chartreuse, armagnac and ricard at the illustrated lecture by filmmaker Ronni Thomas. Plus, enjoy complimentary absinthe, courtesy of La Fée Absinthe.

The evening concludes with a dance party. I am not even kidding. Explore the cultural legacy of the drink here.

Yelping With Cormac McCarthy

2011-11-05T08:00:00.003-04:00

Source: Yelping With Cormac

The more you know.

2011-11-04T14:37:00.000-04:00

Manhattan, When I Was Young

2011-11-01T12:16:00.000-04:00

"I never did it again - walk like that in New York, I mean, alone for miles in the middle of the night. But I did it then, taking in the dinosaurs that were those old empty buildings as avidly as I had once taken in rustling trees and sleeping clapboard houses. I took in the smell, that curious confluence of asphalt and automobile exhaust and swill and, surprisingly, tidal flats, and most of all I took in the swollen, purplish sky, in which, in all the years I have stared at it, I have never seen more than two stars."

Manhattan, When I Was Young

Mary Cantwell