Village Books Blog

Making Time for Reading in 2012

2012 is almost here, and once again I feel woefully unprepared. As I tear down the Christmas tree and start buying my textbooks for next quarter I can't help but think about New Year's resolutions. This tradition is one I always try to take part in, but generally end up abandoning once the ball drops. In the past I have made lavish claims about giving up soda (but root beer always prevails) or cleaning my room once a week (which my mom can corroborate as a failed mission), but this year I have given a bit more thought as to how I can actually accomplish my goal.

First, I chose JUST ONE resolution to focus my energy on: Reading more.

This may seem kind of vague, but I know exactly how much my “outside” reading has fallen to the wayside since I started at Western Washington University four years ago. With textbooks and articles and novels to read for class, it often takes me upwards of a month to finish even a short book. In 2012, this pattern will end. I have no delusions about reading 100 books in a year or one book a week, I just want to read more nonrequired material. The reason I have not been able to do this in the last few years is because of TIME MANAGEMENT.

I have brainstormed a few ways to make time for reading in 2012, and I hope that these tips can help you to join me in this resolution!

1.    Join “The 12/12/12/ Plan” through Village Books
This might be kind of a shameless plug for my employer, but if you haven't heard of our 12/12/12 plan yet, you can read about it here. To sum it up, the goal is to read 12 books in 12 months in 2012. The real kicker is that you can read ANY BOOK. That means that if May is a crazy month for you, your book could be Goodnight Moon or something else that is relatively unintimidating. You get to be part of a book club, without the risk of reading something you have no interest in.

2.    Combine reading with your other responsibilities
I know what it's like to have a lot to do; I am a full time college student, I work at Village Books, and I have three nephews that frequently need babysitting. My plate is pretty full, but who's to say that reading cannot be integrated into these responsibilities? Instead of letting my nephews throw Legos all over the living room, I can read The Phantom Tollbooth to them. If I read an advanced release book from work, I can contribute my review to the book buyers. Since I consider my social life a responsibility, a book club is a way to combine my resolution with socializing.

3.    Turn off the TV
I'll be honest: I love television. I am one of those people who ALWAYS finishes a book, even if I am not enjoying it. The same goes for TV shows. No matter how much a show has spiraled into stupidity as the seasons go on, I will stick it out to the series finale. Because of this, I have more TV loyalties than I am proud of. So, in 2012 I plan to drop at least one show per night from my schedule (sorry Desperate Housewives, but you're not going to make the cut.) By carving out a few programs, I can add seven hours per week for reading!

4.    Don't force it
The reason resolutions often fail is because they can make us miserable. Some days, after classes and work and homework, all I want to do is lay down and watch Family Guy. As long as I keep my laziness in moderation, there's no reason why I shouldn't be able to give in to it sometimes and ignore my book for a night.

I hope that I helped you consider adding “read more” to your list of resolutions this year. If not, I wish you all luck in your respective goals. Happy New Year!

--Kacie

For the Love of Food! Blog Action Day 2011

What is Blog Action Day? It's a day for bloggers worldwide to unite on one global topic. This year the topic is food and Christina and Kacie each share their own thoughts on the subject. To learn more about Blog Action Day, click here.

I love it when my kids ask, “Mommy, what is your favorite food?” How can I answer a question like that? I mean, I could quickly respond with an obligatory kid-friendly answer like, “pizza,” or “ice cream.” Or I can ponder the question for a minute, leaving them in anticipation, and then deflate them with, “tomatoes.” If I’m too busy, washing dishes, or sweeping the kitchen, I might just say, “oh, that’s too hard, I like too many foods.”

Trying to pick out a favorite food is like asking someone to tell their favorite song, or their favorite movie. There are just too many good options out there to really commit yourself to just one. Now, I’m sure there are plenty of people who know what they love for certain. “Oh, that’s easy; I love a mean homemade spicy chili.” Or, “why, etouffee, of course!” While I admire their gusto in favorite foods, I must admit that I judge them on that certainty. How can you only say one thing is your favorite? Really, you think chili is more delicious than a sweat-inducing Mexican pozole, or that etouffee is tastier than an Indian red curry?

OK, OK, so you get the point. I am not a “certaintist” (new word of my own creation). I am one of those melting pot kinds of girls (though generally I don’t like to mix up my food too much). I could never decide that only one food was my favorite. There are so many amazing flavors and foods that taste fantastic. Not to mention that different food, eaten at different times, in different places could make someone suddenly believe that, “Oh my god, this has to be my favorite!”

For example, when I go home to Miami, sit down at a Latin America restaurant, and order a medianoche sandwich with platanos maduros and a Malta to drink, at that moment I believe with all certainty that this must be my favorite food. But then, on a trip to China, while eating some meat-filled steamed buns in front of a tiny Beijing food stand, enjoying taste bud bliss, I believe I am eating my favorite food. How about when I go to my favorite local ice cream store and eat two scoops of fresh peach ice cream on a waffle cone? That is definitely my favorite. Or when I am sitting at home, at my dining room table, with candles lit and a cheese and veggie stuffed pork loin, with new potatoes and homemade bread before me? The romantic ambience, and evening shared with my husband suddenly make that pork loin my favorite. And don’t even get me started on the local farmer’s market. Every food and vegetable there, when it is in season, just picked, and ripened to perfection, is most definitely my favorite food of the day, week, or month.

I don’t believe we should have favorites. Not in friends, not in children, and not with food. The world has so many homegrown flavors that are satisfying, nourishing, and exciting to taste. We would be selling ourselves short by saying, “cheeseburgers” are my favorite, or “kale” is my favorite. Because often, once we label something, we either commit ourselves to over-indulging, or despise it because it’s overkill. I don’t want any food to ever become a regular clutch, so that my diet becomes unbalanced. And I definitely don’t want to eat something to the point of abhorrence (though I’m sorry zucchini, I am not sure I can ever truly love you again). So, to make a long story short, I’m going to eat all of my favorite foods, as much as I can, and in as many places as possible. And that much, I know for certain.

--Christina

 

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I LOVE FOOD. I love eating food. I love pretending to know how to cook. I love watching Top Chef.  Food is something that we need for nutrition and something that we want because of the delicious taste, the burst of energy, and the connections we make around the table with family, friends and dates. Yes, I love food, but recently food has not been loving me back.

In January, I started a semester abroad in Prague, Czech Republic. When I came back to America four and a half months later, I was 15 pounds heavier. It was sort of shocking, because I quadrupled my daily exercise while I lived there. I walked everywhere, I avoided the 17^th century elevators in my dorm and school, and I danced into the wee hours of the morning in one of the world's capital cities of club culture.

But I was also eating a lot of Czech food. I have always loved to travel, and I always try to eat some traditional foods when I am in another region. Sometimes, the food isn't for me, like in Korea where everything was covered in so many spicy ingredients I could barely handle it. Also, pickled cabbage covered in chili powder, seriously? Sometimes I eat the food to be polite, which was the case for every meal in Japan and my 12-year-old taste buds hadn't matured to their current tolerance. Czech food, however, was just downright delicious. I couldn't get enough houskový knedlík (bread dumplings), guláš (goulash), and smažený sýr (a patty shaped hunk of cheese fried in bread crumbs on a bun with ketchup and mayonnaise.) Also, we have to keep in mind that some of the world's most famous beers were at my disposal for a mere 30 Kč (about $1.50) per pint.

Let me take this opportunity to state that I am not one of those girls who obsesses about her weight. I do not regret a single meal from my time abroad and I still love food. I do, however, feel that such a significant weight gain in such a short period of time needed to be addressed. When I got back to America, I allowed myself two weeks to eat all of the foods I had been missing. (Despite my fondness of Czech food, I still barely survived those months without my mom's shepherd's pie.) After that, I started the process of getting back to my prior weight.

I knew that I would never survive a diet that involved counting calories or eliminated any of the major food groups. I decided instead to make small changes to my diet in an effort to become a healthier person in general, and possibly drop the goulash and pilsner weight.

1. I switched all of my grains to whole wheat: whole wheat bread, whole wheat tortillas, whole wheat pasta, whole wheat cereals, whole wheat pizza crust, whole wheat cookie dough, etc.
2. I harnessed my terrible snacking patterns and cut my chip, soda, and candy intake by 90%.
3. I don't drink my calories and I choose water over juice, soda, and sports drinks.
4. I switched from milk/soy milk to almond milk, which has only 60 calories per serving.
5. I eat breakfast, which allows me to be less famished at lunch time.

I have also taken a cue from my six year old nephew, who has to be told at least five times per meal that “food tastes the same no matter how fast you eat it.” I take the time to enjoy food bite by bite, allowing my body time to say “I'm full” before I grab seconds.

Even though food has recently betrayed me, I still love it with every pound.

--Kacie

 

The Art of Reading

We all have our own quirks and habits in every aspect of our lives and, as this job constantly reminds me, just because two people share a love of something (let's say books) doesn't mean they express their love in the same way. I'm talking about HOW we read. Here are some specific factors that come to mind:

Inside vs. Outside: I love the IDEA of reading outside; I imagine a beautiful, sunny day where the warmth soothes without scorching and the faintest breeze provides atmosphere and cooling relief. However, I seem to have rather bad luck with the real thing. Whether it's sunburns, unexpected rain, blinding brightness, or a breeze that tugs on the pages, reading outside rarely lives up to my fantasized ideal and I usually find myself curled up inside instead.

Night vs. Day: I don't have a preference here, but my schedule dictates when I read. I enjoy reading during the daytime, because it's a chance to slow down, to focus a little less on an endless to-do list and just relax and savor a beloved activity. However, I find that to-do list leaves little extra time for reading, which is why I allot an hour each night before I go to sleep. Reading is important to me, so no matter how busy I become, I refuse to relinquish this one hour every evening. If I'm lucky, I sneak in more!

Long vs. Short Time Periods: I read a lot of books, so people are sometimes surprised to hear that I rarely sit down and read for hours at a time. As I mentioned, I do allow myself one hour of reading before bed and sometimes that spills over into more, but usually my reading comes in snippets, even as short as five and ten minutes whenever I can steal the time. It all adds up. Many people do consider devouring a book in one day a sure sign of its brilliance, but when I look back on the books I've read in one day they were shorter, easier reads, not favorites. In fact, if I'm loving a book, I want to savor it. Take the example of chocolate. Some people chew and gulp it down while others let the flavor melt and linger on their tongue. I'm the latter type of person, in regards to both chocolate and books! When I love a book, I don't want it to be over too soon. I want to experience the unraveling story for the first time ever over a couple of weeks, or at least a few days.

Books vs. E-readers: I am a "real" book gal all the way. There are many, many reasons why and that could be an entire post on its own, but I'll pick just one to mention here: my book will never break down. I'm under no faulty impressions that e-readers malfunction more than they do, but the fact remains that my book will NEVER break down.

Multiple Books vs. One At a Time: I'm always reading something. However, I used to only ever read one book at a time, beginning to end, until I allowed myself to start something new. I had friends who would juggle multiple books at once and I didn't understand how they could do that and still appreciate each one. So I tried it. I'm a convert! I now have multiple books by my bed at one time, giving me a little more choice about which one I want to continue at the moment. I also saw a rise in how much I read when I started this. With one book at a time, if it wasn't hooking me it could take months of reading here and there before I finished. Now, if a certain book isn't holding my attention, I simply turn to another, and come back to the first when I'm in the right mood.

Re-reading vs. Once Only: Many people read their favorite books again and again. Not me. There are just too many books out there that I want to read at least once for me to re-read something instead. There are a few exceptions, but only by circumstance not merit of the book. I have re-read books for classes and for book groups. And now that I have my own blog where I review books, I am re-reading some of my favorites so I can write fresh reviews.

Slow vs. Fast: Everyone reads at their own pace. Some people read faster and some simply have more time. It can also depend on how many other hobbies you have. I, for example, have dedicated my life to writing and reading and personally read about 50 books a year or 1 book a week. I'm always trying to bump that up to 2 books a week, 100 books a year, but I'm kidding myself if I think I have that much free time!

Read to the End vs. Move On: Most people I know simply set aside, permanently, any book that isn't drawing them in. I can't do that, though I understand the impulse. I read every book to the end, because I feel it's the only way to fairly judge the work. Most of the time, this pays off, and some books that weren't riveting me become a favorite when I reach the incredible end. However, since I devote this time and effort to each book, I find myself overly frustrated when I still don't like it by the end. I stare at my stacks of unread books and wonder how this usurper of my time slipped its way past so many loyal books that will pay well for the time I give them.

There's no doubt that this a long list, but there are still so many other questions I haven't rambled on about: Do you eat or drink while reading? Do you like to listen to music? Can you read if the television is on? Can you read around others, say those you live with, or do you need to be alone? Do you read bestsellers, the ones everyone else is reading, or more obscure books? Do you follow particular authors? Will you buy hardcovers or do you wait for the paperback? Do you prefer to own or borrow books?

How do YOU read?

--Rachel

Turning the Page

Over the course of the past three decades there have been many challenges in operating an independent bookstore. "You've Got Mail" chronicled the rollout of the big box corporate stores and the difficulty of surviving in their shadow. Amazon, during the height of the dot com boom, spent millions of dollars (and were able to lose money for several years) marketing a delivery system made popular by Sears and Montgomery Ward at the turn of the previous century—mail order. And now, with the advent of eBooks, everyone, including publishers, is scrambling to determine a workable business model.

Add in an uncertain economy, escalating operating costs, and the sale of books in nearly every type of retail store, and it becomes clear that in our thirty plus years at Village Books we've never seen the confluence of challenges that we've experienced in these past few years.  It may be, in fact, "the perfect storm."

So, what does the future hold? I have to admit that my crystal ball is a little cloudy, but what seems clear is that we—the bookstore, our customers and the community as a whole—need to determine the value we add, and figure out a way to monetize that.

Bookstores, both indies and chains, have increasingly become showrooms for books, without always having commensurate sales. In more urban areas especially, it's become common to see someone in a bookstore browse a book, then download it or order it on line from another seller. That wouldn't be so bad if stores like ours were compensated to display and market the books, rather than sell them, but that's not currently the case.

Each year we host around two-hundred-fifty author events. Only a handful of those events are ticketed, and in those cases the ticket price generally offsets additional costs or raises money for a local non-profit. Though we've not seen it to the extent some of our colleagues around the country have, occasionally someone will come to an event with a book they've purchased online or onsite from another retail outlet. There is a cost associated with planning and putting on every event, and when costs exceed revenue...well there's a bit of a problem. A number of stores have begun to charge for most of their events, and though we're not currently moving that direction, it may become necessary.

Though I would argue that the collapse of the Borders chain was due in large part to a series of bad management decisions, that bankruptcy has brought attention to the difficulties across the book publishing and retail industry. Though not surprising, their demise gave us no joy. The reduction in bookstores doesn't bode well for the industry, or for society.

On a positive note, we've been pleased with recent discussions with publishers who are recognizing the importance of independent booksellers and investigating ways to change the industry to better assure our survival. Conversations about inventory consignment, print on demand, and other alternative business models are occurring every day. We're guardedly optimistic that changes will come quickly enough.

We've also been gratified by the response we've had to our One Book Pledge campaign. Many of you have said that, of the books you plan to buy, you'll buy one more of those from us, and one less from other sellers of books. If that becomes common behavior, not only will VIllage Books survive, the store should thrive. We hope everyone will ask themselves this question,"what is the value of an independent bookstore to me, and to my community, and would things be just fine without one?" Your answers are important; we hope you'll share them with us.

--Chuck

A Humble Rebuttal

A few weekends ago, a large kerfluffle erupted over an article posted to the Wall Street Journal website regarding Young Adult books and their often dark, disturbing content and themes. Hundreds (if not thousands) of people have responded via blogs, Twitter (check #yasaves), and other news sources. Two of my favorite replies so far have been provided by NPR and Sherman Alexie. I would also like to add my own thoughts as the YA buyer for the store.

Adults and teens read for many reasons. Some books are pure entertainment, some are for edification, some are just read because everyone else is reading them. The ability for books to be an escape is just as strong for a YA reader. To be able to jump into someone else’s life (regardless of whether the reader’s life is easy or difficult) provides an opportunity for empathy and a certain amount of “This could be me.” The mental exercise of putting yourself in someone else’s shoes and realizing the mistakes we all make and the crappy decisions we all have to face is a skill that fosters understanding and compassion.

Reading can also be the starting point for discussions among friends and between caregiver and child. We’ve all had “that friend” who was too reckless, too depressed, too thin. And sometimes we don’t know what to say. Whether we are the parent, or the friend, or the person that everyone else is worried about, these books provide language to start these conversations, to say to someone, “I’m worried about you.” If you are the parent of a teenager, I recommend reading the books that your kids are reading so that if they do have questions, or need answers, or want to share their feelings and concerns about someone, you have some of that language at your disposal.

As the YA book buyer, there are two other points that I think got really lost in the original article. First, how fabulous that we are discussing the “problem” of kids reading! I have seen plenty of parents and uncles and grandmothers come into the store, hoping to find a book that will hook their young reader. If kids are reading, that is cause for celebration, not for hand-wringing. Secondly, if I was that customer originally cited in the WSJ article, I would ASK THE BOOKSELLER FOR SUGGESTIONS. We are here to help you. We know books. Books are our job. We have a secret delight in matching just the right book for just the right person. If you see me on the bus, I am reading. If I’m not reading, I’m listening to podcasts about books. I follow book blogs. I read these books so that if you need a YA suggestion, I’m going to have some ideas for you. Not every book is right for every reader, but, with our help, hopefully we can find a great match.

--Sarah

Bookseller Confessions

If there's one thing that's true about all of us at Village Books, we love to read. Otherwise, what's the point of being a bookseller? But even though we love to read, we don't love to read everything. We're not just referring to the schlock that's out there. We're talking classics. Bestsellers. Books that everyone in the world has read (except us). The books that when they come up in conversation, we leave the room, or manage to weed through the discussion based on the Cliff Notes that we read.

To cleanse our collective guilty conscience, we've decided it's time to reveal some of these books. So, in no particular order, here are books that some of us at VB have never read...and never plan on reading. And yes, we're keeping this anonymous. We don't need anyone coming in here and yelling at us for never having read:

The Harry Potter series
War & Peace
Wuthering Heights
Ender’s Game
Atlas Shrugged
Ulysses
Sense & Sensibility
The Little Prince
Lord of the Rings
The Hobbit
Corelli’s Mandolin
Moby Dick
Infinite Jest
Paradise Lost
Steig Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy
Water for Elephants
The Catcher in the Rye
Jane Eyre
Crime & Punishment

A Book Hate Confession

  Let's file this one under Free Speech, shall we?

A couple days ago someone started the hashtag #booksotherslikedthatididn't on Twitter. It was like a entering a confessional where the weight of books we hate, but so many people love, was lifted from our shoulders (I'm assuming it was like confession. I don't know. I'm not Catholic so am basing that on what I've seen in episodes of Rescue Me).

As a bookseller, it's my job to put the right book in a customer's hands. I occasionally find myself talking about a book that I dislike, weighing the pros and cons of owning up to that. I mean, there's a possibility that the customer will like it.

Is it a good idea to talk about books we want to launch into a toilet as much as we talk about books we'd like to marry? Is it still possible to handsell a despised tome when a customer is truly interested in it? Maybe if the customer wants to spite me, he'll buy the book (all the better!) I've always thought it'd be great to have a "Books VB staff hates" display, but bashing the product we're trying to sell isn't the best business model, is it?

Despite that, the weight is getting to be too much for me. I must purge my mind of these books I hate with such fervor that the mere mention of them throws me into a tirade. Does it mean they're truly awful books? Well, considering that I'm in a very small minority with, um, all of them, apparently not. Let's just say they weren't my cup of tea.

So, without further adieu, I give you "Lindsey's Books That She'd Like to See Tossed Into a Combine." (I will now be waiting patiently for the angry townsfolk.)

1.) Mr. Peanut by Adam Ross (I've never wanted to punch a character so hard)

2.) The Passage by Justin Cronin (seriously. The guy compares a foggy night to be at a rock concert with a fog machine. Really?)

3.) Moving On by Larry McMurtry (oh, Larry. You did such an amazing job with Lonesome Dove. So why did I treasure tossing this crap of a book into the trash?)

4.) The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami (zzzzzzzz)

Sorry, But Your Book Won't Appeal Beyond this Neighborhood

Some of my favorite poets and novelists have written about the landscape in which they lived. Whether Mildred Walker or Kim Barnes is evoking the terrain (of Montana and Idaho respectively) on the page, they remain masterful in their craft. I live and breathe the land that the characters inhabit. Even if I haven’t heard a curlew cry—I feel that I could intuitively recognize it in the wild.

So what happens when a writer produces several books or a series of poems about the same landscape?  Most often, he or she becomes known as “the author whose books are set in the “Redwoods” or “the poet who is always going on about Iowa.” Their work becomes irrevocably associated to a geographic location. A poet becomes a poet of place. A writer becomes a “Montana” writer. The more dreaded term is “regional.” 

Among some critics and academics, regional becomes a code word for provincial. The writer’s work is good for the region in which they write, but somehow not beyond it.

In my limited contact with writers, academics and publishers, I have encountered this prejudice. God help the poet who uses rural place names or the novelist who has more than two books in the same remote setting. “He or she always writes about Oregon…”
Is calling someone “regional” caused by the human need to identify and categorize? Has the word regional become a convenient box for marketing departments to sell books?

What I haven’t seen is the tendency for critics and academics to identify urban writers as regional. Should a poet whose work is set NYC, where they also live be called a poet of place? No one ever says, “His work is good in the boroughs, but not much beyond the Tunnel.” 

I believe that it is time for people to take a hard look at what the terms regional and writer of place mean. Ghettoizing writers and their work may simplify categories, but it can also be a form of dismissal.

Perhaps it takes regional writers—further from large urban centers—to point out that many urban writers are wearing t-shirts that say, “I am HUGE in Boston.”

--Jory

Jory is a poet, writer, VB bookseller, and the mastermind behind Literary Magpie, which you can enjoy at http://jorymickelson.blogspot.com/

Pat Conroy Takes on the Censors

A school board in Charleston, West Virginia, banned two of my favorite books, The Prince of Tides and Beach Music, both by Pat Conroy. Read Pat's scathing response in his letter to the editor published in the West Virginia Gazette.

Banned (Books Week) in Bellingham

Once again, we're in the midst of Banned Books Week, celebrating our freedom to read and calling attention to the threats made to that freedom.  Village Books was extremely fortunate this week to be able to host our friend Chris Finan, author of From the Palmer Raids to the Patriot Act, A History of the Fight for Free Speech in America.  Chris was the special author guest for a taping of The Chuckanut Radio Hour.  He's been blogging his tour across the country and I thought you might especially enjoy this entry about his visit to Bellingham.