Generally Horrible Questions: April Gosling

The ballroom in Boulder Bookstore.

It occurred to us that it's been way too long since we harassed innocent booksellers with our questions. I (Liz) met April Gosling when she was a manager at Tattered Cover in Denver, and now she works at Boulder Bookstore. Spoiler: it's in Boulder. April likes books, is from Michigan, and is engaged to a guy named Ryan but she insists that he will not be changing his name to "Ryan Gosling" after the wedding. That seems like a missed opportunity. Anyway, here's April. 


Generally Horrible Questions: April Gosling

We asked April for a picture. This is the one she chose.
Buy books from her or she will kill you.

1. Describe your bookselling odyssey. How did you end up where you are?

Kalamazoo, Michigan is the graveyard of ambition.  I had been forced into a public university after attending a private high school and starting at a private college...  So the month before school started, my sister and I applied at any number of places we thought would be cool to work at...  Cool places meaning coffee shops, and only coffee shops. We both got jobs at John Rollins Books (RIP) as baristi.  There was a lot of free coffee that year.  And my job history started to look like this: library clerk, 3rd chip waitress at a dive, comic shop clerk, bookseller, state park ranger, projectionist, bookseller, bookstore manager, and now...  Director of School and Corporate Sales (I got to make up this job title)...

Most of those jobs were at the same time as other, so really there are significant portions of my 20s that I don't remember. (There are significant portions of Gianna's 20's that she can't remember, but the lapse has nothing to do with coffee.) And very little of that was due to drugs or alcohol or strange men...  I know I dropped out of college, did a book tour for a fairly decent chapbook of poetry, and that I moved to Colorado.  The rest is remnants of old resumes I found.  Hopefully mine...
Did I mention that Kalamazoo is the graveyard of ambition?

2. What is your job now? What sort of shenanigans do you get up to?
My job now... I spend a lot of time on Twitter and Facebook. I've also been known to read at my desk. My job is to curate and grow a sales aspect of the store that didn't receive as much attention as it did before. This means, to be short, that no one knows what my job is--most importantly, my bosses. Seriously. Shenanigans? I think it's more the store than the job, but I do a surprising amount of work barefoot. Wild and crazy, I know. (How is that shocking? We don't wear pants some days.)

3. What are you reading now?

I'm reading a book that my Penguin rep guilted me into reading.  It has a horse on the cover, so if he hadn't sent a signed book from my favorite author, I would've happily ignored it.  (Girls with horse obsessions have penis issues/obsessions.)  It's The Untold by Courtney Collins.  I picked it up immediately after Neverhome by Laird Hunt.  And after finishing this, I want violence and a strong man and a Neal Stephenson-esque prose quality.  Don't get me wrong; it's beautiful, and I'm really enjoying it, but two sparse poetic novels back to back kinda hurts.

Read poetry to me, Mr. Barry.

4. What books melt your butter (if you know what we mean)?
Sebastian Barry's language.  If I could make sweet, sweet love to his use of the English language, I'd do it. Fiance be damned.  (And yes, he knows that.)  I dated a poet in college; I'd rather have the language, not the man.  Poets tend to be a wee bit fucked up, either real fuckery or feigned, they are a messy folk.  And incestuous too. (Yeah, we're glad this answer stopped here. Liz was starting to get uncomfortable...mostly because you mentioned poetry.)

5. Let’s talk about Michigan. Were you at least a little tempted by Detroit’s offer of free houses for writers?
Oh, hell yeah!  I'd live with the roving packs of wild dogs for a) a 'free' house, and b) the chance to be kinda close to home.  I don't know if I would fit the 'writer' bit...  I mean...  I write poetry about as often as a death row inmate gets a conjugal visit...  (Ooh! Death row inmates have more active social lives than Liz?! Excellent.) What else would you like to know about the best state in the union?

6. You have to eat dinner with one of these famous Ohio natives. Who do you pick, and will you bring up how your home state hates Ohio? Nancy Cartwright (the voice of Bart Simpson), Colonel Custer, President Warren Harding, Ted Turner, or Dean Martin? Also, does it bother you that Nobel Prize Winner Toni Morrison is from Ohio? Oh, and you can bring one of these famous Michiganites(?) to the dinner: Tim Allen, Jim Bakker, Bozo the Clown, Dave Coulier, Ted Nugent, Steven Seagal; who’s it going to be? Death is not an option.

I think Nancy Cartwright and Dean Martin would be awesome; we'd do shitty impressions while drinking whiskey and martinis.  I'm sure Dave Coulier will drink as soon as I bring up "You Oughtta Know".  So three cheers to the Mitten State!  And yes, we'd discuss the war.  Only to explain that ultimately the U.P. is bunches better than Toledo. (Okay, allow us to clarify this answer. See, it turns out that Ohio and Michigan hate each other in part because they fought a war over Toledo. Also, in this "war," there was one wounded person and no deaths. "U.P" stands for Upper Peninsula, which Michigan got to keep when it became a state since they gave up Toledo to Ohio. I can't imagine how this series of events didn't make the core curriculum in our high schools. Anyway, the correct answers to this series of questions are: Harding, yes, Jim Bakker.)

7. Let’s talk nuptials. On a scale of 1 to Book Nerd Insanity, where does your upcoming wedding rank? What’s the coolest/craziest thing you’re planning? Are you registering at a bookstore?

Imagine April and Ryan Gosling under this arch.

I feel like we crested the scale when we did the math on exactly how many average-sized hardcovers it will take to construct an arch roughly seven feet high and five feet across.  Or dividing our books by color for the DIY projects we've left to do...  Note to publishers: Please print books in steel gray, sage green, and majolica blue.  Stop with the black.  It's fucking up my arch.  And all the crazy book decorations seem normal to me now, so can't say what's craziest...  I get to use power tools to drill holes through books!  That's probably a bad thing.  The fiance hasn't given up the idea of having a bookstore onsite, so perhaps the registering. (Since your job involves special event sales, there pretty much has to be an onsite bookstore.)

8. Liz or Gianna?

Better the devil I know, so Liz.  Sorry, G; I'm sure you're swell. (Naturally, the correct answer is always Liz.)

9. Astros or Cubs? (Keep in mind that we take our baseball very seriously.)

This is like a Buzzfeed quiz where the obvious choices of Tigers, Red Wings, or huh? are missing.  I was in Chicago when the Cubs won some important game back in 2006-ish, so we'll go with Cubs. (Your life will be filled with disappointment. Just like Gianna's.)

10. Do you have a magical moment working in the book business that stands out?

Good:  The release of the last Harry Potter.  I was working at Horizon Books in Petoskey, MI.  The staff all dressed as characters; we had classes, a basilisk cave, and tons of people.  At midnight, the manager jumped onto the counter and we started passing out books.  Simple enough.

Bad:  Same bookstore, about a year later.  Customer goes on about how expensive the small city is; he stops complaining for a moment, looks at me and says, "Where do the poor people live?  Like ones with your job?"  I answered we all lived under the bridge during the summer, raise our prices, and live relatively well on the money we made off the tourists during the summer.

11. Dish on your boss. We promise that no one reads this blog.
I feel like a gargantuan monster when standing next to my boss.  Even if you have zero readers, there is nothing bad to say...  He chews loudly?

Read poetry to me, Mr. Franco.

12. Any author crushes?
Hmm...  Yeah...  Nope.  I'd like to keep the crushes quiet as the crushes are local authors who may or may not follow me on Twitter. (Got it. We're just going to say that it's James Franco.)

13. Where do you hope to go in Book Land? (What does the future hold?)

Beyond the extreme respect and notoriety among my bookselling kin?  My crazy old lady dream is to own a bed & breakfast with a bookshop...  However, the future holds as the present is; until the fiance has a job that means I can work part time, and then only if the job is fairly stress free and fun.  Yes, he knows this. Then all your books are belong to me.  And my tons of reading time.

Man... I don't curse enough.  And there are like zero lies in here. (Sucker.)

Thanks April. 

Best Book of the Year So Far: Picks from the Tattered Cover Crew

This country is full of great bookstores. Chances are that if you're a fan of independent bookstores, you've heard of Tattered Cover. What Powell's is to Portland, Tattered Cover is to Denver. Three locations, each with a distinct personality but an emphasis on a diverse selection and great staff picks, make the Tattered Cover a destination for tourists and Denver natives alike. They also host literally hundreds of authors each year. I sent an email query to buyer Cathy Langer, who dodged by saying she could not select a single title. Cathy forwarded along my question to the booksellers, though, and several of them took up the challenge.

Here are Tattered Cover staffers' picks for best books thus far:

Barry McComas:

Doll Bones by Holly Black 

Zach, Poppy, and Alice are three friends that have just started Middle School. Their favorite way to pass the time is to act out roll playing games with their toys, but other people have started to tell them that it is time to grow up. This book impressed me because anyone could relate to it. Each character has a unique personality and up bringing that is believable, which makes it all the more creepy when weird things start to happen to the trio. This book is the perfect combination of spooky-fun adventure and coming of age.

Jocelyn Gebhardt:

Zits Chillax by Jerry Scott is my favorite book so far this year.

I was thrilled that the characters  I love in the daily comic strip are absolutely true to themselves in a full length book for mid-grades and young adults (and adult adults, if I am any indication). Laugh out loud humor combined with compassion  for the perfect mix.

I fervently wish this is the start of a LONG series.

Laura Snapp:

It's Summer. I cannot be bothered with a sweltering walk to the Library. Even borrowing a new book from the bookstore seems like too much of a risk...so it's time to pick something off my bookshelf (did I buy it for the cover? All I know is that I never actually got around to reading it, but it's survived a move or two). And in this case, years and years ago a fantastic publishing friend named Marcie Goot recommended this one to me. It's Brother Of The More Famous Jack by Barbara Trapido and it's just perfection. Why is this out of print? Did you see An Education? This is better, richer, English at its finest. I don't even know if she ever wrote anything after this. Frankly, why should she? You will not be sorry if you track this one down.

Jackie Blem:

The book that rocked my world actually came out on December 6, 2012, very small and very quietly, but I still say that everyone who cares about reading and people need to read it.  What is this gem?  Hot Dogs and Hamburgers by Rob Shindler (9781938416095, Grove River Books) .  This is the story of a man with twins--the little girl flies through school, but the little boy just cannot get the hang of reading, and it's affecting the rest of his schooling.  Rob tried many different things, but they just weren't working for his son.  So, being very frustrated and feeling like he was failing as a father, he goes to The Literary Center of Chicago, where he trains to be a volunteer literacy teacher for adults.  He gets a very interesting group in his first class, and together they open doors for themselves (both students and teacher), but they also come up with ideas that actually help Rob's son.  In fact, he (the son) and his sister ran the class when Rob became very ill for a time.  This book is a wonderful view of how important reading is, and the doors that literacy opens can make an amazing turnaround for those who are finally given the tools to it.  It is one of the most feel-good and energizing stories I've ever read, and it still has me trying to figure out how I can help with this in my community.  I'm starting with hand selling copies one at a time and plan to work my way up from there.  It's going to be on my Best of the Best list for a very, very, very long time.

Polling the Masses: What to Read After Gone Girl

I've been noticing a trend over the last few months when perusing the search queries that led to our little blog.  Among things like "hot lesbians" (oh, the joys of sharing a blog with Gianna) and "cover of Old Yeller," there are a huge number of people out there in Book Land looking for books similar to Gillian Flynn's breakout psychological thriller Gone Girl.  We, of course, love Gillian Flynn and her books.  If you're looking for Gone Girl-esque reads, don't overlook Flynn's other novels, Sharp Objects and Dark Places.  I decided to ask our group of experts--some of the booksellers across our territories--for some other options.  I'm sure they've been fielding this question for months now, so we're going to steal their ideas and smear them all over the web (or at least to the web surfers looking for "Liesl Von Trapp" and "cute naked girls"...not necessarily together).  A friendly reminder: shopping at these bookstores keep these booksellers employed and keep the expert recommendations coming.  Say thank you by shopping at your local bookstore.  It makes a difference.

Ashanti (via fellow bookseller Stephanie), Boulder Book Store, Boulder, Colorado 

One of our booksellers, Ashanti, read and loved Gone Girl, and I asked her what she'd recommend to someone who enjoyed that book.  She said that she thinks she may love it for different reasons than most people, but she did say she was reading I, Lucifer by Glen Duncan at the same time as she read Gone Girl, and felt that the two books complimented each other nicely. She said she would also recommend Gillian Flynn's other books, or something by Stephen King - she feels The Shining has a similar tone.

Cathy, Tattered Cover, Denver, Colorado

How about Robert Goddard's Into the Blue or Borrowed Time? Page turners about missing/dead women with a sketchy anti-hero. Plot AND character driven.

McKenna, Murder By the Book, Houston, Texas

Megan Abbott -- The End of Everything and Dare Me

Tana French -- anything [Tana French pops up a lot when I've informally asked booksellers this question.  I've heard nothing but praise for her books.]

Danielle, Brazos Bookstore, Houston, Texas

I recommend John Fowles The Collector. It has a similar format and tone to Gone Girl - it's half told from the point of view of a kidnapper & half from entries in the kidnapped woman's diary. You hear the same story from two dramatically different points of view, and they're both fascinating to follow. It's Fowles' first novel that he wrote relatively young in the mid-sixties. Amazing writing - reads like a thriller but is obviously a literary novel. [I love this book.  It's the stuff of nightmares and refers back to Shakespeare's The Tempest.  Great read.]

Scott, BookPeople, Austin, Texas

The End Of Everything by Megan Abbott- Abbott takes noir to new areas with the story of a 13 year-old girl in 80's suburban Detroit looking into the disapearance of her friend and learning more secrets than she should. A strong, complex, beautifully disturbing look at people ruled by thier desires and emotions.

Valerie and the staff at Blue Willow Bookshop, Houston, Texas
I'd love to share but we can't think of anything like that hot mess. We'd love to know what other booksellers think!

The Local Crusade

Kurt Vonnegut display at BookPeople in Austin.

Allow me (Liz) to start with a disclaimer.  Normally we steer clear of politically charged topics in this space because our passions are generally literary or humorous...or possibly perverse.  We're booksellers at heart, and as such we are also mercenaries.  While we mostly talk about the books we love, both Gianna and I believe that the more important issue is that people are reading, period, and we'll pretty much sell you anything in print.  Even if it's Twilight. (We didn't have to sell Twilight, mercifully.  Not that there's anything wrong with a vampire romance set in high school, or, like, a 200 year-old preying on a high school girl.... but you should totally buy Twilight. I'm Team Jacob!  (I don't really know what that means.)) A literate culture is a thinking culture, and a thinking culture...is more likely to get the joke.  I wondered how many people caught the Of Mice and Men reference in the Saturday Night Live skit last week, for example.  The following entry, however, is influenced by my personal bookselling history and political beliefs, and I do not claim to speak for Gianna, other contributors to this blog (should there be any), or the companies for whom we work.

I'm pretty sure that I see either a tweet or Facebook status update every single day that espouses the foodie movement.  Eat local ingredients, shop at farmers' markets, zucchini tastes better than a Snickers bar, etc.  I am a failing foodie, mostly because I have the palate of a seven year-old.  I watch Top Chef because I like to watch passionate and talented people throw down with the competition...and I like it when CJ's broccolini (I don't know what that is, by the way, or if I even spelled it correctly) comes out of the cooking device looking like cat hackings.  It's the same reason I love figure skating--nothing's better than Sasha Cohen going splat at the Olympics.  The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat!  Excellent.

Where was I?

Tattered Cover in Denver, Colorado.

Foodies. Right.  I don't understand how it is that everyone seems to agree at least philosophically that eating fresh ingredients and consciously shopping from local carrot pluckers is the ethically correct action...and then they don't pay attention to where they buy their other goods.  Just like the rampant and repetitive postings about the importance of local food, I see at least one article a week declaring that books are a dead medium and that all bookstores will fail.  And I'm going to state it, particularly as we head into the holiday season and  national retailers fall over backwards trying to undercut one another: price matters, but source matters more.

Again, I realize that I'm personally invested in buying books from local bookstores because a large part of my job is selling books to these stores.  My job is directly connected to the success of Random House titles at these stores, many of which we feature on this blog (and we'll continue to do so).  The people who work in these stores are my friends.  I want to make sure they keep their jobs.  I also want to see that my community--I identify as both an Austinite and Houstonian, having lived in Austin while working at BookPeople and currently residing in Houston with my Random House job--thrives and doesn't look like every other place in the world of sprawl.  I believe that my money should by-and-large support locally owned businesses and the people who toil in them everyday.  I believe in paying taxes.  Taxes pay teachers and teachers teach reading and readers buy books and book buyers keep me employed.  Hakuna Matata and Circle of Life, etc etc etc.  It matters.  It matters when you buy a toy at a large retailer because you've been told it's cheaper in massive advertising campaigns, and then you decry how manufacturing jobs have been shipped to China.  Who shipped them there?  That retailer, by demanding that manufacturers devalue their goods to the point that sweat shop labor is the only way to produce those toys.  The choices we make as consumers are the differences between failing and thriving, locally, nationally, and globally, as a country.

Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi

The state of Texas, where I reside and whose governor currently claims success for a balanced budget, is bankrupt.  Social services are non-existent, and to maintain the campaign facade of economic frugality, thousands of teachers are now unemployed or face future unemployment.  It'll be interesting to see what happens when all the nursing homes close too and suddenly the people so vehemently opposed to the "liberal" (and I would argue that "liberal" means humanitarian) agenda are forced to wipe granny's butt themselves.  It ruins the aura of McMansion living, you know?  Tax dollars pay for teachers, and they subsidize health care facilities, and they guarantee a quality of life which I think generally everyone supports.  At the same time, in Texas, there is a political battle raging over the issue of collecting online sales taxes.  I admit that I regularly shop online; it's easier to find clothing for my six foot frame and size eleven feet.  I do try to shop from local businesses with an online presence, however, and keep my tax dollars close to home...and not shirk my responsibility of paying those taxes. That's money that pays for the teachers producing future readers who support bookstores who keep me employed so that I can buy stuff from stores, and so on.  It's important. Cheaper is not the only factor in consumer awareness.

The book industry currently is a maelstrom of change.

E-readers became the hot gadget a couple of years ago, instantly changing the ways that publishers and booksellers think about bookselling, and certainly changing the ways that readers think about books.  E-books, by their very nature, are an online market.

At the same time, price wars for physical books among national retailers over the last couple of years have trained consumers that books aren't worth $25 but a fraction of that.  In order to gain a customer following, they've regularly and deliberately sold books for a loss.  Books ARE worth the prices charged.  There are writers, editors, publishers, designers, printers, marketers, sales departments, human resources, warehouse workers, customer service representatives, and booksellers, etc, that all have to earn their livings from that $25.  General retailers that sell a wide variety of products make up the difference in their losses by selling consumers toasters at a higher price; bookstores generally don't have that option.  In order to stay in business, they need to charge what the book's worth, and keeping bookstores open is important because...?  Remember the circle of life stuff earlier?  Money stays in the economy, and we all keep our jobs and granny stays in the nursing home and junior doesn't end up as some illiterate beast-child.

Judith, Tom, and Pippin the dog, at
Octavia Books in New Orleans.

On top of the economic value of local bookstores, though, there is also the social currency.  These are the taste-makers, the local farmers markets of the book world.  They--along with librarians, and some other big mouths in the blog world, and once upon a time Oprah--help consumers find those magical stories that inform our lives.  At some point, a bookseller read Of Mice and Men, recommended it to customers and teachers who began to teach it in schools, where it became a cultural reference point, and last week that bookseller's work appeared in a Saturday Night Live sketch.  Books provide joy, adventure, knowledge, and shape everyday conversations.  They are art pieces for which their creators slaved for sometimes decades (well...not James Patterson, perhaps).  They are important.  And the booksellers largely are the key to finding those diamonds among the thousands of books out there.  You read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo because your friends read the book, and they read it because booksellers all over the country were saying to their customers, "Check out this book.  I really think you'll like it."

So let's go back to the e-book issue.  Amazon has the Kindle, Barnes and Noble has the Nook, Apple has the iPad, Sony has the Sony Reader, and there are a dozen other reading devices out there.  The e-book world has opened for the other readers, and consumers have the freedom to choose where to spend their e-book dollars.  Most e-readers will support books purchased from Barnes & Noble, but also from Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston, or BookPeople in Austin, or Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi, or Tattered Cover in Denver.  In other words, e-book customers with devices (other than Kindles; Amazon is proprietary) have the ability to continue to support local businesses.

The prices?  In the book world, publishers became concerned enough about the devaluing of e-books by retailers that they established what's known as the Agency Model.  What it means for consumers is that publishers establish the value of an e-book.  When The Blind Assassin e-book is on sale for $5.99 on Amazon, it is also on sale for the same price at BN and Apple and Google E-Books, the e-book provider for the local bookstores who provide an e-book service through their websites.  You as a consumer aren't shopping for cheaper, so you can select where your dollar has the greatest impact to you, your friends, your community.

Some books, like Sondheim's
lyrics collection, don't work
as well in the digital format.

I'm often asked if I read e-books, and if I prefer a format.  I would argue that I read books, and in a variety of formats.  I read hardcovers, I read trade paperbacks (the size most of most of those book group picks), I occasionally read a mass market (the grocery store size), and I read e-books.  I read many manuscripts for work, and it's more cost efficient and environmentally conscious for Random House to post digital manuscripts rather than Xerox thousands of pages for reps across the country.  I also buy e-books occasionally.  And I buy them from a local bookstore.

Several weeks ago I took up my Chuck Palahniuk reading challenge and, for the first time in about four years, I read paper books exclusively.  I delighted in the tactile joy of reading books in this format.  I will always be a book collector; in my mind, my books are a scrapbook of my life, and even if I read an e-book manuscript, I want to own the physical reminder of that book to mark that period in my life.  I want the authors I admire to sign those books, like signing a painting.  I buy my books from local bookstores, though, and I also buy my e-books from local bookstores.  I owe it to my friends and colleagues and my community.

Google provides e-book services
for local bookstores, and for
most e-reading devices.

The book business is notoriously tough, and yes, some bookstores--most notably Borders--have closed.  Ten years ago, bookstores were considered successful if they could make a 2% profit for the year.  Now most stores just pray to stay flat.  The stores that have great customer service and unique personalities, though, are foundations for their communities and some of them are thriving.  I would point back to the food industry.  Think about all the "only x percent of restaurants survive the first year" stats, but also think about the foodie culture that makes restaurants tourist destinations across the country and chefs into celebrities.  Bookstores should be vacation destinations too, and booksellers should be celebrities.  Once upon a time, Oprah could mention a book she loved and millions of people who trusted her taste scrambled to buy her picks.  We have local bookseller celebrities all over the country, and I'd argue that they are far more in tune with the books out there, the gems that enrich our lives--they know you and your towns and they are Oprah on steroids (and often with more tattoos).

As the holiday season approaches, I humbly plead that you consider the greater implications of every dollar you spend.  Give books as gifts, whatever the format, but choose wisely.  The content may be the same, but the book's value varies dramatically.  Become bookies.

Breakfast Not Included

Last week I took my final trip of the selling season, and for the first time I actually remembered to grab my camera. Sure, I could have taken pictures of the scenic Texas Hill Country as Gianna and I drove out to Fredericksburg, or I could have photographed the wildlife, but really I love what makes a place unique (and even better if that diversity includes a bit of absurdity). Gianna and I were visiting a book distributor in Fredericksburg, Book Marketing Plus. We arrived in town about 20 minutes before our appointment, so instead of cruising the touristy areas of historic Fredericksburg with the peaches and the Germans, we wandered around the back roads and came upon this gem of a sign for accommodations. In this age of cost-cutting and recession, I'm a bit surprised that no one seemed to take advantage of this great offer. Sleep five for $39 a night and fully furnished? Is the "no breakfast" the problem? As we pulled forward to the property, though, we realized that "beautifully furnished" might be a bit of a stretch. Granted, we did not go inside (or even get out of the car), but Gianna kindly leaned out of the driver-side window and snapped a picture of the beautiful exterior. Even more impressive was the recreational area outside between what turned out to be two mobile homes. Never mind that mowing (scything?) wasn't part of the rigorous maintenance provided by the people living in the white house on the corner. I wonder how long that table has rested on its side? Decades?

As I mentioned before, I grew up in the boonies, and I confess that I have some low brow tastes. I'm not classy. I think that Tremors is one of the three best movies ever made. I asked for a Snuggie last Christmas and didn't get one, so I'll be asking for one again this year, in the maroon color because it looks most cultish. I prefer Sonic Drive-Ins to Ruth's Chris Steakhouses. Actually, I prefer Sonic to just about every restaurant there is. I even worked at Sonic as a carhop one summer during college. So I feel like I show a greater appreciation for rural treasures like the Bed & No Breakfast than I would if I'd grown up going to places like malls and libraries and museums and bookstores. For that same reason, though, places like the Bed & No Breakfast make me love the unique nature of independent business--you'll notice I haven't posted a single photo from the assorted Hampton Inns I frequent regularly. Sure, it's an eyesore that would destroy the property value of the house across the street (if there were a house across the street), but it's also adding character and depth to a town that has become such a tourist Mecca that it might as well be Branson with peaches. I guess I like the stuff that makes a town distinct, even if it is absurd. Do you think you'd have to give a vehicle description to the concierge when checking in at the Bed & No Breakfast?

I am officially on vacation this week. My sister and I are flying to California (if ever a state straddled the territory of majestic and absurd), and then working our way through the Major League Baseball stadiums there for a week. Like the mobile home-as-hotel accommodation, the baseball parks add character to towns. I stopped by one of my Houston bookstores last week and overheard a conversation between a customer and a bookseller about the Astros versus the Pirates. When the bookseller offered sympathy for the customer's support of the Pirates (who haven't posted a winning season in about 14 years), the righteous customer flew into a (good natured?) rant about how PNC Park in Pittsburgh is at least a "real" ballpark, as opposed to either the Astrodome or Minute Maid Park in Houston. I would have been all, "I have two words for you: World Series, so I'll take my ridiculous ballpark" but to his credit the bookseller didn't break into open taunting. He's right, though. The quality of the ballpark weighs into the appreciation of its location, and the Houston park sold corporate sponsorship of the foul poles, for crying out loud.

I am a big fan of the idea of bookstore tourism, too, and bookstores helping to define the character of a place. Is Oxford, Mississippi, the same place without Square Books occupying three buildings around the courthouse square? Isn't visiting the Tattered Cover one of those "must do" destinations when spending time in Denver? When my family took a vacation to Oregon several years ago, my father asked me what I would like to see. The only request I made was "Powell's." It seems to me that the successful bookstores are the ones that distinguish themselves in some way--as tourist destination, as cultivator of great book groups, as premier experts in a field, as passionate readers who know how to talk about books, as local leaders in community organization. Great bookstores add depth to their neighborhoods and towns.

My sister and I fly out tomorrow morning. I hope that I'll be able to update the blog a few times along the journey, as I drag her to bookstores and she drags me to the beach.