Jas Faulkner

All Tied Up In A Bow

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by Jas Faulkner

writer’s note: Abject apologies to Diane.  This is late and I am sorry. 

The email -the second this month asking me about  hockey books- came from Sam and Tab.  Someone brought in copies of “Saving Face: The Art and History of the Goalie Mask” and “Shooting Stars: Photographs of the Portnoy Collection at the Hockey Hall of Fame” and wanted to know if I thought they had a chance of selling them.  In “God, Flag, and Football” country that Mississippi can be, I told them to get them for their own enjoyment while they’re at work and hope someone from Southaven, current home of the River Kings, might take an interest and buy them.  Neither of the girls are particularly interested in hockey, but both love sports photography and these books have some shots that would be assessed as gorgeous by anyone who loves looking at beautifully composed pictures.

Even though the two books Sam asked about are thoroughly researched and well written, it brings to mind the fact that , as we get closer to the biggest gift buying and giving time of the year in North America, a whole section of books that are meant to be seen and not heard- er- read will make an appearance on sales tables at brick and mortar stores all over the continent.

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A Guide To Books For Practicing The Crafts

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by Jas Faulkner 

Oh, you thought I meant the crafts as in The Craft.

No.

It’s October and frankly, writing about the Craft would be a bit too precious and  disrespectful to Wiccans and Pagans,  don’t you think?

I’m talking about crafts and crafters.    It’s a subject near and dear to my heart.  Given that the days of triple-digit killer heat seem to be over for a while and gift-giving season is upon us, maybe it’s time to give it some thought.  Those of you who sell books might want to think about crafts, too.

Inclement weather, snow days, and holidays are not too far off, which means potential buyers are going to scour the internet for craft ideas.  I understand the argument that  many people will stop at the hand full of  ideas they can find online.  In fact, I agree with it, to an extent.  That person is more than likely a casual crafter who may have a few finished projects, a half-dozen unfinished masterpieces, and a box of never opened craft supplies.  Odds are pretty good they’re not going to be buying craft books  from your store any time soon. They’re the grazers you’ll rarely if ever meet.  Let’s move on.

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A Small, Lost Library

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by Jas Faulkner

Over the past few years, I have been involved with a number of programs that involved giving away books or “releasing” them in areas where they would hopefully find new homes or at least the attention of another reader until they were passed on.  As someone who loves books and owns her own personal library, it is hard to imagine a home without books.

I know they exist.  As a child, I saw a few of them when visiting the homes of classmates.  There was something rather sterile about those houses.  The perfectly turned out living rooms with blond wood furniture, windows and glass front doors that shone seamlessly, devoid of nose prints from dogs and fingerprints from little brothers just never felt welcoming to me.   My parents were sometimes dismayed that my favourite babysitter was a rather scattered elderly woman who lived in a timeworn Victorian house with her grown daughter, a half-dozen dogs who had the run of the place inside and out and bookshelves jammed into odd corners with old, odd bits of furniture nearby to settle in for a good read.

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Live Nude Texts!

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by Jas Faulkner 

When I was in college, there was a girl on my floor whose mother managed a Waldenbooks in her hometown.  Whenever the mom visited, bearing a cache of food and supplies for her daughter, she would also bring  two or three boxes of paperbacks that had been stripped of their front covers for everyone to dig through.

Being a thoughtful sort of person who understood what it was like to love books and have every bit of one’s disposable income go towards ugly, overproduced and underedited required texts; she made it as easy as possible for people to find books they would love.  Every box was packed one layer thick with the spines facing up so there were no surprises.  Sometimes the spines of the books were reinforced with clear packing tape.  I figure it was busy work for slow times in an already neat as a pin store.

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Life With Books: Abbreviated

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by Jas Faulkner 

This is probably a bad thing to admit, but I participate in a forum that follows a reality show about the Duggar Family and yet I rarely if ever watch the actual show.  When I do, I see that about eighty percent of the commentary is pretty accurate, but there are moments when I watch and what I see doesn’t seem as bad as it has been made out to be .

On a recent episode, one of the Duggars, a son who is now grown and married and has his own household, showed the documentary crew his eldest child’s library.  It was a shelf that contained seven or eight books.  I have seen criticism about the paltry space and selection in this little girl’s collection.  There were two things I kept in mind as I watched this:  1. The child in question is two or three years old. 2. Neither of these young parents grew up in homes where there was an emphasis on education beyond learning the basics required to take care of a family.  Sad to say, that might be the case with the next generation of Duggars, but I hope it isn’t.  

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Satan Claus Is Coming To Town

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by Jas Faulkner

“He’s out.”

“He’s early this year.  Is there a reason for this?”  I could hear Sam joggle the phone as she rang up a customer and told them to have a good day.  A second later she was back.

“We got the guidelines from the not-the-city council  You know how Tab is about that.”

Bear with me and you, too, will know how Tab is about that.  But first, a little bit of history.  Ten years ago, a radio station decided to buy a three-storey building on the town square that was at one point  a storefront with apartments on the two upper floors.   They then proceeded to wreck the building, turning it into “haunted house” that was sufficiently detailed in its grue that they required a media professional to deal with the inquiries and it developed a fan following.  

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Positive Shelf Image

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by Jas Faulkner

Some fans refer to it as a grown up version of the big, thick Wish Books that arrived in the mail sometime around Thanksgiving (in the US.)  Other followers use a racier term for the category of websites and social media gathering places where people share ideas and pictures about their passion: shelf porn.  The names really don’t matter.  The rows by any other names are still breathtaking in their creativity and their ability to speak to the deepest wishes of book lovers.

They give us images of  the grown-up versions of dream houses that align more closely with our desires than the prototypes we were offered as children.  Barbie’s dream house, the Brady’s split level ranch, and the Huxtable’s brownstone had beautiful furnishings and rooms any kid should envy.  The one thing that made them seem lifeless was the absence of any kind of library.  Dream homes should have dream shelves.

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The Paginated Babysitter

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by Jas Faulkner

Theresa* is a middle school librarian in Tennessee.**  When budget cutbacks hit her county, she didn’t mind taking on the additional hat of media specialist.  Doing so meant that she wouldn’t have to do circuit administration, meaning that she would be responsible for only one school.   She understood that all of that was part of working in public education.  And like many educators, she found that in the past five years, her job has turned into a constant battle and it has nothing to do with scrabbling for her share of the shrinking budget.   Her biggest opponent is not student apathy or parental antipathy, but the ubiquity of handheld gadgets.

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