Yesterday I went to Duluth's newish (2018?) indie bookseller, Zenith Bookstore. I wanted to support the store, but it's a bit hard that this pile of four books cost $70.
Prices at my thrift store bookstore are .99 for paperback and 1.99 for hardback, so this pile would have cost $4.96 (+ tax). We almost never get recent books donated though, so two of these won't come through for a good while yet.
I'd blogged (in June '19) about reading an interview with Ocean Vuong and being impressed with this line from On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous:
(If you want to borrow it when I'm done, let me know.)
I hadn't heard of the Librarian of Auschwitz--have you? A YA novel translated from Spanish in 2017, it's based on a real girl being the custodian of a few books smuggled into Auschwitz.
I wasn't sure about buying it until I read the line, "We have eight books and six living books." I've just read Fahrenheit 451, which comes up with the same solution to the banning of books––people memorizing texts––so I wanted to read more about that really happening.
Penelope Fitzgerald's The Human Voice, about working for the BBC during WWII, is one of my favorite books. I haven't gotten into the other books by her that I've tried, but why haven't I ever tried The Bookstore?
Now I will.
Migration Literature (2019) is a gift for HouseMate, who teaches free classes to people preparing to take the test to become US citizens.
Prices at my thrift store bookstore are .99 for paperback and 1.99 for hardback, so this pile would have cost $4.96 (+ tax). We almost never get recent books donated though, so two of these won't come through for a good while yet.
I'd blogged (in June '19) about reading an interview with Ocean Vuong and being impressed with this line from On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous:
“Sometimes being offered tenderness feels like the very proof that you’ve been ruined.”On Earth is still in hardback, and the hold line at the library is 443 on 82 copies, so buying it made sense.
(If you want to borrow it when I'm done, let me know.)
I hadn't heard of the Librarian of Auschwitz--have you? A YA novel translated from Spanish in 2017, it's based on a real girl being the custodian of a few books smuggled into Auschwitz.
I wasn't sure about buying it until I read the line, "We have eight books and six living books." I've just read Fahrenheit 451, which comes up with the same solution to the banning of books––people memorizing texts––so I wanted to read more about that really happening.
Penelope Fitzgerald's The Human Voice, about working for the BBC during WWII, is one of my favorite books. I haven't gotten into the other books by her that I've tried, but why haven't I ever tried The Bookstore?
Now I will.
Migration Literature (2019) is a gift for HouseMate, who teaches free classes to people preparing to take the test to become US citizens.
Ouch!
ReplyDeleteAlthough I would guess that many of these books will take a long time to show up in even used bookstores. Or if they do, they don't sit on the shelf too long.
Last week I was at Second Story Bookstore in DC which is a little pricier but curates well. I finally found a hard copy of The Gulag Archipelago (volume 1) for $10.
The Librarian of Auschwitz sounds very interesting.
I have heard great things about Ocean Vuongs' book.
Kirsten
I've had the same experience -- wanting to support a local bookshop, but feeling that punch in the wallet! I guess it's a trade-off we have to make if we want independent bookstores to survive.
ReplyDeleteKIRSTEN: Yes, they would go fast in a 2nd hand store--in fact, I got this store's last copy of "On Earth"!
ReplyDeleteHey! We have vol. 2 of Gulag, if you want to buy it for $10 + shipping.
I was going to put it out this week--funny timing!
STEVE: I love that this Duluth indie bookstore also had secondhand books, priced around half of the cover price.
"The Bookshop" was $6 instead of $10, so that's not bad.
The real splurge was a new hardback--almost $30...
But yes, I do want to be able to browse real paper books in person, so once in a while I shop outside my store.