Miscellaneous – Page 7 – The Bookshop Blog

24 Hour Bookstore

March 13, 2013 by Diane Plumley

So, when my husband started trolling the internet to find some new old bookstores on his iphone, we were both momentarily elated when he hit– a 24 hour bookstore. Imagine! Just like the diner on the highway, or the fruit market on the city corner–a place to purchase books all day and night long!! How … Read more

Epigrams and Building Blocks

March 13, 2013 by Myles Friedman

“Collect books, for as ye stow, so shall ye read.” This is the new motto of Circle City Books. I started thinking about epigrams several weeks ago when a woodworker happened by, peddling free-standing sandwich-board signs. I bought one put it on the sidewalk in front of the store. On one side I put … Read more

Library Voyeurism: Admit It. You Do It, Too!

March 10, 2013March 10, 2013 by Jas Faulkner

by Jas Faulkner

One of the advantages of the current technology available for photo sharing is the ability to find details that would have otherwise gone unnoticed. Thanks to less expensive digital imaging and social media, we have all seen recent pictures of ghosts, Big Foot, Chupacabras, Elvis, Tupac, and fiends deeply buried in our couch cushions.

Through the pictures we scan and then expand we have discovered the lost libraries of our friends, our family and our childhoods.

We all do it. We see a picture of a book case int he background and our first impulse is to try to read the titles on the spines. Photos from my own late sixties to early seventies childhood reveals as much about my parents’ aspiration for me and my brother as it does about their thirst to continue their educations.

The Wit and Wisdom Of Dorothy Parker

April 14, 2022March 4, 2013 by Diane Plumley

Dorothy Parker and the Round Table of sophisticated New Yorkers held an alluring atmosphere in my adolescent mind. So much so, I hunted down obscure texts by Robert Benchley, and Alexander Woolcott, two of the mainstays. The literati of the twenties were probably looked upon as obnoxious snobbish decadent do-nothings, by those in the hard … Read more

Have Book Will Travel

March 2, 2013 by Diane Plumley

I suppose the kindle or nook or ibook could be considered a stack of books being lightly hauled from destination to destination by those who love to use them. Not of that ilk myself, I tend to enclose a book of some sort, hardcover, paperback, pulp fiction, doesn’t matter what form, so long as it’s … Read more

Abandon Hope, Ye Seekers of Customer Service!

February 28, 2013 by Jas Faulkner

by Jas Faulkner

Here’s the thing about me and customer service: I know there are wonderful people who work the phones and chat lines. They manage to make the experience of correcting someone else’s mess up as painless as possible. Most of the time, I am lucky enough to get one of those hardworking people who are filling a position that is often thankless and hideously underpaid. I love those people. In fact, I usually send letters to call centers and compliment people who make it a point to not provide me with fodder for articles like this one.

However, there are times when I get people who have turned contrarian ineptitude into a piece of performance art that would send Diamanda Galas into a corner to weep softly and wave away a fit of the vapors so she could get back to terrifying unsuspecting music lovers.

The Anatomy of a Book

February 25, 2013 by Carrie Bailey

by Carrie Bailey At some point early in our lives, most people are told to be careful not to damage a book’s spine or to “Look at that cover!” It is at that precise moment, these young readers are introduced, by their a teacher, librarian, or bookseller, to the idea that the parts of the … Read more

A Critic’s Lament

April 14, 2022February 22, 2013 by Jas Faulkner

by Jas Faulkner

Writers occasionally go through periods when the energy is there, but nothing seems to gel. An idea may formulate and at first it might seem like a sound investment of creative energy. Then the harsh reality sets in that the back space key has erased nearly one thousand words in one to three hundred word increments. No loss there. It was all so much verbal sludge to be hosed away. Maybe the initial idea was good, but this just isn’t its time. I know this feeling only too well. It sums up my week in writing.