Independent Bookstore Heaven

On our mini-vaca, did Jen and I set out with the goal, the intention of visiting all the independent booksellers in the state of Vermont?

No we did not. That's probably why we neglected to darken a few, just a few, doors.

Swear to Bast, bookstores have tractor beams which pull me inside even on those off and unusual times when I’d no thought or plan to enter anyway.

In Brattleboro, there’s Brattleboro Books, Everyone’s Books, The Book Cellar and Mystery on Main Street.

It’s that last one that yanked me clean off the sidewalk. Honestly, with a front window display like this, how could I resist?

I managed to get outta there with just one book:

'Divorcing Jack'
by Colin Bateman
Divorcing Jack is a 1998 satirical black comedy. The plot is set around the Northern Irish reporter Dan Starkey who gets entangled into a web of political intrigue and Irish sectarian violence, at the same time as Northern Ireland is set to elect a new Prime Minister.

The cover art was irresistible and the story looked interesting and fun.

I’m psyched to start reading, particularly after looking at the author’s website. He starts on a real roll in the Q&A section :

Q. How much do you get paid for a book?
Mind your own bloody business!
Q. Where do you get your ideas from?
Mind your own bloody business!

 Yeah sure he goes on to answer other question but I just love how he snarls out of the gate!

Was that all I got? ‘Course not but the rest are gifts for Jen and I’m keeping mum. Oh yes, I am.

Jen, if you’re reading this, I am SO not tellin’ ya what I got!

Brattleboro even has a Literary Festival which, for the sake of my purse and home shelf space, it’s a good thing we were a few weeks too late. Maybe.

We didn’t get to the other Emporiums du Livre owing, primarily, to our fine restraint but, possibly more, the most spectacular Metropolis Wine Bar seems to possess an even stronger tractor beam.

I'm nearly certain of that too.

I knew I was doomed the moment Jen and I first drove down Montpelier’s main drag though. There were three independent bookstores all within a a few blocks of each other. There was Bear Pond Books, Rivendell Books and The Book Garden. I swore I’d be strong -- after all, I already had that stack of to-be-reads at home.

Problem numero uno.

This Jonathan Lethem collection of essays, 'The Ecstasy of Influence,' was remaindered at Bear Pond Books AND the entire town was running a 20% off sale on Thursday night. Double discount, who could resist?!

From a NY Times review:

Jonathan Lethem’s fat, hip and garrulous new essay collection, “The Ecstasy of Influence,” is self-consciously in the tradition of books like Norman Mailer’s “Advertisements for Myself” and John Updike’s “Hugging the Shore,” brilliant grab-bag volumes that blended criticism, journalism and introspection. So it makes a kind of sense that Mr. Lethem debated, he tells us, calling this book either “Advertisements for Norman Mailer” or, even better, “Shugging the Whore.”

Glad I didn’t resist and can’t wait to crack the spine!

The following morning, still attempting to be strong and resist the siren song of ink on paper, I tried to pass by Rivendell. Nicht möglich. I was gazing into the window like a sad, cold beagle puppy and Jen MADE me enter that damnable, incredible palace of reading pleasure.

This of course led to problems numero due and tre.
'Rides of the Midway' by Lee Durkee  :

With this full-tilt novel of youthful catastrophe and hellbent debauchery, a bartender kicks in the door of Southern literature.

Plus ‘Midway?’ Y’all know I can’t resist a carnival story.

'My American Unhappiness' by Dean Bakopoulos
From a NY Times review:

He’s working here in a new, hypomanic prose style; the jokes come fast and furious, and the steady narration of the previous novel has given way to a wry, edgy self-mockery.

And this tiny synopsis, more at the link:

Zeke is the last of his social circle, a disbanded group who once spent their time slumming in an old-man bar, “discussing weighty books and foreign films, drinking can after can of Miller High Life in ironic appreciation for the cheap things in life.” He lives with his mother and with twin nieces orphaned by the Iraq war and a car crash, works for a fading nonprofit agency and distracts himself with recreational empathy: his startlingly accurate guesses of what people will order at Starbucks, based on their appearance.

 The reviewer has definite mixed feelings about the book -- dunno, looked intriguing and what’s not to love about fast, furious jokes and edgy self-mockery?

At the check out, where I was simply unable to resist adding a pine green Rivendell T-shirt to my purchases, the man with a gorgeous smile behind the register told me that 'Rides of the Midway' author, Lee Durkee, used to work there. Too cool!

Register man was Robert Kasow, the gracious and lovely countenanced owner.

We didn’t make it into the Book Garden but feel mega confident that Rivendell is the best bookstore in Montpelier.

Vermont -- Independent Bookseller Heaven.