Hell's Belles

Months ago a title caught my eye - Womenfolks - by an Arkansan author, so i squirreled it away for safe keeping. Rediscovering it (much like a squirrel must after such a winter), i was wrapped around the first chapter instantly. That kinsome attraction brought to mind a favourite customer and fellow Arkansan's recommendation of another Ozarkian author hailed not as an unknown writer but "an undiscovered continent," Donald Harington. Perhaps he remains a continent undiscovered because locating his work feels like locating sunken Atlantis or floating Laputa. The vast vaults of our dearest CPL got nuthin. 

To soothe my stung hick pride, i extracted as many works by other Arkansan writers as i could find from the local branch. This June shall be dedicated to sweating through poetry, novels, and folklore hailing from the ridges and river valleys of the Natural State. So far the list includes such diamonds as Miller Williams, John Clellon Holmes, John Winks, Robert Palmer, Robert Vance, John Gould Fletcher, and Thomas Nuttal. Will report soon on this literary hitch-hike down yonder. 

p.s. If you got pronunciation problems, you got good reason.

-the oracle in residence

Algren, The Movie

The Soul of a Book

“Every book, every volume you see here, has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it. Every time a book changes hands, every time someone runs his eyes down its pages, its spirit grows and strengthens.” 

                                                           ― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind

Pulitzas! Getcha Pulitzas!

Smell of an Earlier Time

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"The books in the shelves in front of me, sure enough, are. . .mainly books of Japanese poetry. Tanka and haiku, essays on poetry, biographies of various poets. . . .When I open them, most of the books have the smell of an earlier time leaking out between the pages-- a special knowledge and emotions that for ages have been calmly resting between the covers." 

                                                 -- Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

180 Years of Socialist Reading!

Here at the bookstore, we're good, cut-throat capitalists, but as the public library system bred most of our customers into the insatiable readers that can't seem to stop exchanging their hard-earned cash for our well-worn texts, we figure even socialists deserve a shout-out. Today in 1833, the Petersborough Public Library was opened as the first of its kind, and has continued to run as a free (gasp!) service to its patrons. We don't know how they do it. Magic probably. But props to this original gateway of book addiction.
-the oracle in residence

Read the text of this postcard from 1916

Birthday Book Hunt

 We had the recent pleasure of helping a neighbor find a few dozen books from his wife's to-read list for her birthday. Some were easy - classics we always stock. Others (like the Infinite Jest pictured) just happened to burst through our doors in the nick of time. Better than an Easter egg hunt by far.