New Year, New 30 Day Book Challenge, Day 22

Day 22...

Gianna:

Today's question was sort of lame (name your favorite book that you own), so we thought we would spruce it up some and ask ourselves which book we would really love for you to buy a first edition of for our birthdays.  You are going to buy us birthday gifts right? We won’t be greedy. [I will be greedy.]

My first choice you can probably pick up for under $10,000 if you take the time and really shop around. Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor originally sold for about $5 so the price has gone up, I will admit, but the first printing was around 3,000. I know, Harcourt didn’t have too much faith in the old gal.

So that’s a bit too rich for your blood? I totally understand, and that is why I am willing to settle for a signed first edition of Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner. I sort of almost know for a fact that this book can be had for under $9,000.  [So can a car.]

Wow, it’s clear to me now that you’re one cheap son of a bitch.  I am going to make a really sweet offer; I will allow you to purchase Beloved by Toni Morrison for me. You can get a signed first edition for a couple grand. [I'm checking now to see if my first printing of Beloved is signed, and then I'm hiding it from my bloggish friend.]

I know, it seems like a pretty extravagant gift for someone you’ve never met, and someone you most likely aren’t going to care much for, but that’s not why we buy gifts for each other. We buy gifts to make people like us. I will give you my word; if any of the above gifts show up on my doorstep, I will really like you. 

Liz: 

I've got an idea. Gianna and I will trade houses for 24 hours, and at the end of the time we each can take a book from the other's shelves. Then we can watch Gianna cry (and not just because Zorro spent 24 hours mauling her). Yes? Okay then. Done.

In the meantime, I think that you need to give me Virginia Woolf.  Mrs. Dalloway, first printing from her Hogarth Press, signed in her purple ink. Yes? Good. Under $20,000. Remember that I've been a very good Liz this year.

In case you think we're just greedy and obnoxious, I would like a copy of Moby-Dick that isn't signed by Herman Melville. I want the Rockwell Kent illustrated version, signed by the artist.

Illustrate this book for me!

Finally, I would like a book that technically doesn't exist...yet. I love The Hakawati, but I would love an illustrated edition of The Hakawati even more. I have two words for you: illuminated manuscript. Someone needs to make this happen. Money is no problem; I think Gianna's loaded.

By the way, as I was poking around the web looking for a cover image, I discovered a site called The Book Cover Archive. I want to look at the art of books as much as what's written within the covers, and this site is my kind of Pinterest. Heavenly.

10 Cool Things: Brazos Bookstore

Brazos Bookstore has a long and storied history of serving the Houston literary community.  It's the place where Donald Barthelme and Larry McMurtry shopped for books back in the day.  Located in one of the "cool" areas of Houston--on Bissonnet between Kirby and Greenbriar and close to the West University, Rice Village, River Oaks, and Museum District areas--Brazos is a destination bookstore for anyone visiting the Bayou City.

Why do we love Brazos?


1. The store has a history of hosting great authors.  Like, Pulitzer Prize Winners and Nobel Laureates and Presidents.


2. Brazos carries a diverse selection of art, architecture, and photography books--one of the best selections in Texas.


3. Fantastic location for you hip kids and wealthy socialites.


4. Liz just lives a block away so you can visit her after your trip to Brazos. She hates this idea. Yep..I just doubled checked and she just hates this idea. Call for her address. [Do not call me.  I hate this idea.]

5. How often is a store known for having a great poetry section?  

Children's Books!

6. Under new management...and he's a ginger!


7. The Houston community loves Brazos.  When original Karl Killian was thinking about selling or closing the store, a group of passionate Brazos Bookstore fans came together to purchase the store and keep the tradition alive.


8. Two words: Open Bar.  [Not really.]

Gianna as Holden Caulfield, famous
literary whiner.

9. Did you know that Brazos has a Children's Book Section?  They do!  And they are focusing on the classic titles you want to give as gifts.  Truly beautiful books.

Liz as Ahab.  Arrrrrr!

10. The coolest Halloween idea we've seen--literary cut-outs created by one of their very talented booksellers!

30 More Days Challenge: Day 23

Day 23: Favorite Classics

Gianna:

It some point in the 90’s I read several E.M. Forster novels--Howard’s End, A Room With a View, Maurice, and Where Angels Fear to Tread--one right after the other. My favorite turned out to be the last book in the pile, A Passage to India, written in 1924.

A Passage to India pits the British Raj and the Indian Independence movement against each other when a young British woman accuses a Muslim doctor of sexually assaulting her while on a group outing. The trial exposes the racial tensions of India and permanently changes the key players. It is a loaded, truly thought-provoking, beautifully written novel.

From Passage:

E.M. Forster

"'I have had twenty five years experience of this country'--and twenty five years seemed to fill the waiting room with their staleness and ungenerosity--'and during those twenty five years, I have never known anything but disaster result when English people and Indians attempt to be intimate socially.'"

Gianna loves Judy.

I really loved reading Forster and I wonder why he isn’t more widely read or even talked about. Could it be that they have made films of nearly all his books? No need to read him when excellent films were made? I loved the film version of Passage (can’t get enough of Judy Davis) but the novel really is something special. I could say the same thing about Howard’s End which I love love loved, but the book is so gorgeous.

Liz:

I struggled with this category because I couldn't decide which direction I wanted to go with it.  Around the time I was a sophomore in high school, I realized that I would probably pursue an English major in college....and I realized that the education I received at Woodville High School might fall short in preparing me.  Don't get me wrong--I think that, given the resources available in a town with 2,500 people, the Woodville public school system was actually pretty strong.  There were some great, dedicated teachers who wove straw into gold.  Still, I knew that there were kids in other, better funded schools who were reading more than three books per year and would enter college better prepared.  And while the faculty at my school did their best, the student body was a different story.  My class was known for being hyper-competitive, but we didn't challenge each other to think and grow, we challenged each other to be whiny little shits.  Anyway, all of this is to say that throughout high school I read a ton of books from the great western canon, and quite a few of them I enjoyed.

Herman Melville

And yes, I am one of those people who loves Moby-Dick.  I'm fascinated by maritime history because of this book.  I'm a sucker for novels of obsession and psychological meltdowns because of this book.  I love American Lit based in part on my love of this book.  There's always talk of the "great American novel," and I think that Ahab's quest for the white whale and ultimate destruction just might be that book.  I actually have a framed copy of one of Rockwell Kent's iconic drawings for his gorgeous illustration of Moby-Dick hanging in my bedroom.  If I were stuck in the biodome for three years, I'd take this book with me.  I think it's beautiful.